Bombshells
by loving.life93
Summary: A mystery visitor to Frank's office brings several life-changing bombshells to drop into the lap of the Reagan family. She knew Joe but why don't they know her? First story here – gentle handling appreciated!
1. Prologue

**AN: Hey everyone - newbie on the loose! So I've been reading on here for years but Blue Bloods has grabbed me by the throat and simply WILL NOT LET GO! This plot bunny in particular has been very aggressive and wouldn't let me go to sleep last night without some attention, so I was tortured into compliance! **

**I adore the Reagan family but Joe has always intrigued me. We know he was loved, that he was the bridge between his siblings (particularly Danny and Jamie) and that he was a great cop but really we don't know who he was. So this is my attempt at fleshing out Dt. Joe Reagan with a slightly unusual story. Played a little fast and loose with the history by sending Joe away to London town for a bit shortly before he died but all will be explained, never fear just play along!**

**As with everyone on this site feedback is much appreciated and I cannot wait to hear what people think!**

Police Commissioner Frank Reagan, for once, had twenty seconds to breathe. His previous appointment with the mayor had been almost pleasant and thankfully brief, the only major operation on in his city today involved a baseball game between two amateur and barely antagonistic clubs, and his family were all on speaking terms with each other. Danny and Erin had buried the hatchet on their latest disagreement at Sunday dinner last week and they had managed to go almost an entire week without stepping on each other's toes, a miracle if ever Frank had seen one.

Standing he moved to his window and looked out over his city, taking the time to appreciate just how beautiful it could be when he wasn't dealing with its latest crisis or criminal. He could almost hear Mary repeating her favourite Whitman quote to the kids in the car as they crossed one of their city's many bridges, _"There is no place like it, no place with an atom of its glory, pride, and exultancy."_ And he smiled at the thought, looking over behind his desk to the photographs arrayed behind it. His eyes settled on the one he always found the most bittersweet. He couldn't remember when it had been taken but the image of his wife and second eldest boy smiling over their shoulders at the camera, Joe with a towel slung over his shoulder and Mary with her hands in the sink never failed to make his heart ache a little even as he smiled.

A light but confident knock at the door drew him from his reverie and signalled the end of his reminiscing for the time being, turning he saw Baker standing just outside the opened door.

"Commissioner, there's a sergeant here to see you," the blonde detective explained with an almost confused look on her face.

"From where Baker?" It was almost unheard of for a sergeant to even consider coming up to the top floor of 1PP without a summons, in fact Frank couldn't recall it ever happening.

"She's from the London Metropolitan Police sir." Well that explained the confusion he'd seen edging onto Baker's face when she'd come in but raised even more questions.

"Does she have an appointment Baker?"

"She called requesting one this morning sir, wouldn't elaborate as to why she needed to see you but I said you may have time this morning after your meeting with the mayor and she showed up, so I brought her up to wait outside." It seemed he wasn't going to get any clarification from Baker so he gestured for her to bring the mystery visitor in. Baker ducked outside and then swiftly reappeared followed by a petite woman who looked to be around 30 and very nervous.

"Sergeant Elizabeth Copter, Commissioner," Baker introduced the woman in civilian clothes and then looked to Frank to see if he needed anything else.

"That'll be all Baker thank you." The detective nodded and retreated closing the door behind her.

**AN2: OK so constructive criticism is always much appreciated but even a note to say "I'm X and I read this" would make my day! The next three or so chapters are written and in fact I'll probably publish them now. I did intend for them to form the first chapter but I realized it was getting insanely long so decided to split it into more but slightly shorter chappies. Your opinion on that choice greatly appreciated too. Should I have left it as larger chapters or are the smaller one's more effective?**

**Lots of love and extra hugs for reviewers! xx**


	2. Chapter 1

**AN: So you're getting a few chapters to start you off here so I think this will be the last author's note for tonight, just again encouraging reviews *wink wink nudge nudge* and also because I forgot to do this last chapter and I can't figure out how to modify that...**

**For the record: I DO NOT OWN BLUE BLOODS! If I did we'd see a lot more Jamie for starters and we'd learn some more about the almost blank canvas that is Dt Joe Reagan!**

_From previous chapter:_

_**"Sergeant Elizabeth Copter, Commissioner," Baker introduced the woman in civilian clothes and then looked to Frank to see if he needed anything else.**_

_**"That'll be all Baker thank you." The detective nodded and retreated closing the door behind her.**_

Frank examined the newcomer as she glanced around the office before visibly bracing herself and looking up at him as he stood expectantly by the window. He saw that his prior assessment of her as nervous wasn't an overstatement by any means, her hands were clenched into white-knuckled fists and even that didn't stop the tremors entirely. Her already pale skin almost had a sickly green wash to it and her short red hair looked like she'd run her hand through it repeatedly before rapidly trying to smooth it before entering his office. He struggled to visualise her as a police officer. Even recalling what he could about the black uniform of his forces' London counterparts she still looked too small to really be able to project the air of authority and physical presence he knew was a cop's best defence on the streets of any city.

She seemed to be examining him just as intently as he was her but she quickly brought their mutual assessment to an end, "Commissioner Reagan it's a pleasure to meet you Sir."

A hand reached out to him as the woman took steps towards him across his office and Frank was forced to revise his previous opinion of her. Physical size she may lack but something about her confidence and bearing, even if he knew she was nervous as hell, made him realise she was just as capable of handling trouble as any officer in his department. It reminded him of some other women he'd known his wife in particular, but Frank quickly dismissed the thought.

"Sergeant Copter," Frank responded. He was often called a stoic man of few words but the truth was, although never accused of being a chatterbox, the former detective knew the value of silence. Of letting a stranger fill that silence with information, and as he had no idea what a London sergeant was doing in his office it only seemed fair to let her bring him up to speed to level the playing field.

Frank thought her eyes flicked briefly over his shoulder, to the plaque showing Joe's photo and acknowledging his sacrifice in the service of their city that Frank kept on the table beside his window but it was a motion so fast he may have imagined it. She released her much smaller hand from their solid handshake and seemed to settle herself into their conversation. "I understand that my visit may seem a little strange commissioner, and I appreciate your assistant fitting me into what I know must be a hectic schedule at such short notice but the fact is I needed to speak to you and I've come to New York on something of an impulse."

Well she'd certainly piqued his interest now and he motioned for her to continue as he walked back to his desk and sat in his well-worn chair.

"The truth is sir, I knew your son - Joe that is." Elizabeth kept her eyes on the large man behind the desk as she settled into the chair he'd indicated, she saw the flicker of surprise behind his eyes as she started to explain herself. _He may not look much like Joe_, she thought, _but the way they carry themselves is uncanny. _

"You did?" _OK, so plainly the man wasn't going to make it easy, _she thought mildly irritated_ but he could at least give me something._

"Yes sir. You know Joe came over to London for a month as part of that mutual department understanding and cross-Atlantic collaboration drive a few years ago." She knew damn well the man knew that, Joe had said how his father had encouraged him to see a bit of the world on the department's dime. But he really did seem determined to make her explain herself with absolute clarity so Elizabeth steeled herself to try to do so. _It was going to be a long story_, she thought ruefully.

"Joe had only been in the city a few days before we met on shift. It was supposed to just be a reasonably quiet Friday night, no major football matches, nothing to really get the tensions rising at all but you know how it can happen sir. One comment gets taken the wrong way and you can have the sparks flying in seconds," Elizabeth saw the smile that flickered across the PC's face, the same look she'd seen on many a reminiscing copper over the years. "Anyway, it was about 11.30 and we got a call over the radio about a pub fight that looked to be getting nasty. One of those ones that just suck in the people that go in to break them up. There were three officers on scene already requesting assistance so my partner and I flicked on the blues-and-twos and hightailed it over to the Lion.

"The place was a mess when we got there, the fight was raging out of control and we couldn't see the officers that were already there, just a flicker of high-vis wet weather jacket every so often. The fight was starting to spill out into the street and more and more coppers were showing up by the minute, so we waded in and started to try and break it up. Took us about 15 minutes to settle it, 30 something officers had gotten involved and about twenty arrests. It was a mess though and we ended up with a massive convoy to the local emergency department.

"They were packed at the hospital anyway but they're pretty good to us there and so they started putting injured officers into exam rooms to get us seen, minor injuries were two to a room trying to make it as quick as possible. I'd managed to pick up a sprained wrist and got tucked into an exam room to wait for an x-ray to check it wasn't broken. That was when I met Joe."

She couldn't help the small smile that crept across her face as she remembered that night. The fight had been loud chaos as usual but the adrenaline rush was worth it. She'd been riding the rush so high that they'd been halfway to the hospital before Ellie had even realised something was badly wrong with her wrist. Her and Connelly, her partner had only been heading to the ED because the toerag she'd managed to arrest had taken the business end of a smashed bottle along the side of his face and looked like he was going to need some serious stitches. By the time they got there though the wrist which had been a little sore when they got in the car was absolute agony and seriously swollen. She'd been hustled into the little exam room by a nurse and told someone would be in to check on her as soon as possible.

"Joe and the officer he was riding with had been involved in the fight too and Joe had managed to catch a glancing blow from a thrown bar stool. He was in there for a possible concussion check. Thanks to the darling NHS we were in there for almost an hour before we got more than pain killers so we'd gotten talking and hit it off," her voice trailed off as she seemed to be considering her next words carefully and Frank thought for a minute, trying to remember hearing Joe talk about the incident.

He remembered the time she was describing very well. Joe had been one of twenty detectives and uniforms chosen to spend a month in London working with the Metropolitan police whilst their positions back in New York were to be filled by an opposite number from London. The exchange had been reasonably successful and the returning officers brought home plenty of new experiences and ideas but it caused just enough headaches for himself and the Met commissioner that it was decided the experiment wouldn't be repeated. It was ironic, he thought briefly, he and Joe had almost spoken more in that month than they had in the two and a half months following Joe's return before his death. They had spoken almost every day and Frank could vaguely remember Joe describing the events the sergeant was retelling.

"He hadn't even been in London a week had he?" Frank questioned softly.

"No sir, he was riding a normal beat with one of the uniforms from another station, just to get the lay of the land before he started working with the detectives from CID. It was only his second shift." She saw the recognition move over the commissioner's face. _Maybe I was wrong, perhaps Joe did mention me to his father before he died. That would certainly make this slightly less awkward._

"He mentioned the stop in hospital but he didn't mention you, sorry."

_Well there goes that theory._

"I didn't think he had commissioner," she replied swiftly but again she seemed stuck for words so Frank took pity on the woman who obviously still had something to say and he stood and moved to the coffee pot brewing in the corner of his office.


	3. Chapter 2

_From the previous chapter: _

**_Maybe I was wrong, perhaps Joe did mention me to his father before he died. That would certainly make this slightly less awkward._**

**"He mentioned the stop in hospital but he didn't mention you, sorry."**

**_Well there goes that theory._**

**"I didn't think he had commissioner," she replied swiftly but again she seemed stuck for words so Frank took pity on the woman who obviously still had something to say and he stood and moved to the coffee pot brewing in the corner of his office.**

"Coffee , Sergeant?" He asked already pouring himself a cup and adding creamer before she pulled herself out of her search for the next part of her tale.

"Yes please sir, just black thanks." Frank didn't show the surprise that crossed his mind as she said that, even he himself couldn't stand the taste of the police life blood without a little help. All of the cops that sat around his family table knew the value of a well-timed cup of coffee but none of them had ever been able to stomach the stuff black. He heard a small laugh come from the petite sergeant and looked at her curiously as he handed her the warm cup.

"Sorry sir but the look on your face then was just like Joe's the first time he ever asked me how I took my coffee," the small smile was still on her face as she continued, " he couldn't stand the stuff without a mountain of sugar."

"You're right he couldn't. His mother used to wince when she saw how much sugar he used to pour into a cup, she used to mutter about the dentist." Frank surprised himself with that remark. He wasn't usually so candid, particularly with near strangers even if they _had_ known his son. She also seemed a little shocked at his elaboration. But it appeared to settle her as she took a long sip and then opened her mouth to continue her story.

"Like I said commissioner, Joe and I hit it off. By the time we got out of the hospital our shifts were over and neither of us had a car as our partners had cleared off. So we decided to grab breakfast and share a cab home, we just talked for hours, about anything and everything our families, jobs, cities. Joe had only been in London a few days and hadn't been to see the sights so I offered to take him around a bit, before we split to head home and crash before our next shifts. We ended up spending most of the morning hopping on and off an old Routemaster double decker that the city uses to run around the sights," again Frank saw she was smiling as she talked about showing Joe not just the Houses of Parliament and Buckingham Palace but _her _London sights.

The best coffee in the city was a little café in the back of an old bookshop just a few blocks from the station Joe was going to be working out of. She took him to get to know the pubs that offered cops a first drink free, the alleys which were trouble spots for police pursuits and the spots where a smart officer could wait to apprehend a suspect who'd run down one. And when Joe had asked her about church she took him to the two Catholic churches nearest to where he was living and had him meet the parish priests. Frank recalled Joe sending him a photo of himself standing in front of a London double decker bus with Buckingham Palace in the background, the photo was in a box of similar photos and mementos he kept of his sons, he remembered Joe had looked so carefree, Frank had never thought to ask who took that photo but realised it must have been the young woman sitting in front of him. He'd also over the month mentioned attending mass and the parish priest a Father John Woolich who he now recalled had written a letter expressing his condolences when he said he'd heard about Joe's death from a colleague of his son's. _Was it this woman who'd told the priest? _he wondered now curious. Joe had respected Father Woolich so much and the man's letter had helped Frank heal just a little more as he read the words of a complete stranger filled with such admiration for his son.

Frank thought he'd ask her later and abruptly realised he was acting as though he _would_ be seeing this strange woman again. She had given no indication he would be, in fact she'd said she'd needed to see him today as she hadn't really planned this trip to New York, which didn't exactly bode well for her staying long enough for him to have another conversation about his son. But Frank realised he wanted to talk to this woman about his boy, about the month of Joe's life he'd missed being an ocean away from him. Her description of the morning she and Joe had spent wandering her city was fading and she was starting to blush realising that she may have been rambling, Frank wasn't going to admit that he hadn't noticed as his own thoughts had been drifting so he just smiled indulgently and waited as she coughed lightly and took another sip of her fast cooling coffee.

"We eventually got so tired we had to grab a cab to have any chance of heading home and grabbing some sleep before we had to report for our next shifts. Joe was an absolute gentleman and insisted on paying for the cab and just as the cab pulled into my street he asked me out for a drink to say thanks for playing tour guide. I agreed and so we met up the next evening after our shifts and by the end of the night Joe asked me out for dinner," Ellie knew she was starting to flush as she realised she was basically describing the start of her relationship with Joe to his father who was cocking his eyebrow. _Just the same as Joe … wonder if they know how alike they are? Focus Copter! You've still got plenty to tell the man, in for a penny in for a pound_. She mentally squared her shoulders for the next part of her story.

"You've probably realised when I said I knew your son I mean I knew him well Commissioner," she smiled wryly. "Truth is by the time Joe had been in London a week we'd become almost inseparable. We worked out of different stations, and Joe's position with CID meant he picked up a lot of longer hours but anytime we had free we spent it together."

_Deep breath now Ellie, time for bombshell number one_.

"Sir - Joe and I were dating for almost the entire month he was in London." The second eyebrow moved up to join the first as Frank's eyes widened almost comically.

"Joe never said anything to me about a girlfriend in London," Frank said slowly, " in fact if you knew my family at all I can guarantee he never told any of us, no one would have kept it quiet this long."

"No sir, I know he didn't tell any of you," Frank kept a close eye on the red head as she chose her next words carefully. "The fact was when we started we both knew Joe would be leaving at the end of the month. It wasn't going to be anything serious. And so Joe didn't see the point in mentioning it, he said you usually talked more about the work he and the other guys were doing. Discussing the differences between what he'd be doing if he was still here and what he was made to do in London more than his free time anyway." Frank knew it was true, he'd never really considered what his son was doing in his off hours, he assumed he'd been spending it with the other New York cops but plainly he'd been mistaken.

"It wasn't supposed to be anything serious when we started out commissioner. We were just two people who clicked and decided to enjoy the time we had, but the longer we spent together the more we realised we really cared about each other." Elizabeth looked earnestly into Frank's face as she prepared to drop bombshell number two.


	4. Chapter 3

_From the previous chapter:_

**"It wasn't supposed to be anything serious when we started out commissioner. We were just two people who clicked and decided to enjoy the time we had, but the longer we spent together the more we realised we really cared about each other." Elizabeth looked earnestly into Frank's face as she prepared to drop bombshell number two.**

"Sir, by the time Joe left … we were head over heels for each other." She saw the look on Frank Reagan's face change from stoic interest to shock tinged with hurt and a small dose of suspicion. She didn't fault him for the faint trace of disbelief. She could barely believe she was in the position of explaining to this giant of a man that the son he'd buried more than four years ago had been in a relationship with a woman he'd never met in the months before he died. A relationship his son hadn't even mentioned. _God Joe, right now I feel like dragging you out of the grave! This is your bloody mess too you know!_

"So what happened when Joe left London?" Frank asked in a tone which betrayed none of the emotions Elizabeth had just seen flying across his face.

"He didn't say anything then because we didn't know if what we had would last the long distance thing, and Joe didn't want to deal with a ton of questions about a girl you may never meet." She looked appropriately abashed as she explained his son's silence. "But we talked almost every day once he went home. We used to joke about having to take second jobs just to pay off our phone bills. We'd talked about me coming over to New York for a couple of weeks for us to explain all of this and for me to meet Joe's family. And, I hadn't told Joe this but, I'd started looking at the feasibility of taking a six month sabbatical and coming to work with the NYPD. I was in love with your son sir. And I was ready to move to New York to give our relationship a real shot."

She stopped there and just sat looking at the man across the desk from her. He was examining her just as she was him but it was so different. He had no idea who she was beyond the fact that she was a stranger who walked into his office, unloaded a chunk of her life story onto him and then topped it with the fact that she was in love with his dead son. _Oh if only I was finished_, she thought dryly.

He didn't know her from a Jane Doe but she knew plenty about the man in front of her, and not just from the googling she'd done in her hotel that morning. Joe had idolised his father, he adored his entire family but the two she'd heard the most about were his baby brother Jamie and his rock of a father. That wasn't to say Joe couldn't find fault with his dad. He was a grown man and could tell his father was human just like the rest of them, he'd told Ellie about the temper that ran through the entire Reagan family that made for such spectacular Sunday dinners. But he'd also told her about the protective instinct which made this man a father bear that you did not ever want to cross, a fact which hadn't helped her nerves walking into this little meeting.

Hearing Joe talk about his family was something she'd never tired of in the months they'd known each other. An only child of a single father she had nothing to compare to Joe's tales of torturing and being tortured by his siblings only to be cuffed back into line by the gentle guidance of his parents. Or of the rarer occasions of truce between his siblings which gave him some of his sweetest memories. Like the time Joe and his older brother Danny had encouraged the guys at school that their sister Erin was not really available or the night when all three of them taught Jamie how to play poker before Danny left for Iraq with the Marines. Joe's mother had passed away a few years before Joe came to London and talking about her had still caused his smile to take on a bittersweet edge, an expression Ellie had recognised all too well. She'd seen it on her own face the times she caught herself reminiscing over her dad who'd passed away just after she finished her time as a probationary constable.

The PC was still watching her closely. He saw the way she was obviously thinking about his son. She kept looking at the photos that surrounded his office and Frank couldn't help wondering if she was attempting to put names and memories she'd learnt from Joe to the grins in the frames. But he had questions and she was going to answer them, especially if she was going to be returning to London soon.

"How did you find out what happened to Joe? And why didn't you tell us all of this sooner?" He couldn't help the hurt that leaked into his voice, his son had been keeping another massive secret when he died and then this woman had kept it to herself. A part of his son's life he had never known about was sitting in front of him and he couldn't help glancing at the photo of Joe he kept on the desk, not an NYPD portrait but a snap taken when they were fishing with Jamie at the pier one early morning only weeks before Joe had been killed. His son had been in love then and if this woman hadn't walked into his office this morning he never would have known it. He couldn't help feeling a little betrayed by the laughing young man with the fishing rod and mischievous eyes.

_Mischief or love?_ A voice sounded inside his head which sounded strangely like Mary. _You knew in your gut something was different those few months Frank, you just wrote it off as to do with the Templar when you learnt what happened to our boy but maybe it was this instead?_

"I tried to phone Joe that night. I'd booked my leave to come over in three weeks to finally meet everyone and haul ourselves out of the closet Joe had been insisting we hide in! We were supposed to be talking flights so I'd get into JFK at a time when he could come and pick me up. A few weeks before I'd started to ask him why he couldn't just tell you about us. I mean I was planning on coming over soon so he'd only have to stand the questions for a few weeks but he said he'd had the greatest idea to just make it a surprise. I was trusting his judgement that it would be a pleasant surprise and not something either of us would come to regret. He was going to get Lydia Gonsalves to cover for him, apparently you'd been saying he should invite his new partner from warrant squad around for dinner for weeks so he could just tell you she'd be coming so there would be enough food and an extra place. Then Joe said we'd arrive together and he'd just introduce me as his girl. He had such a laughing fit when he thought about the looks on your faces I thought he was going to choke!" She looked a little sheepish not knowing how their plan for the grand reveal would have gone over four years ago let alone now when its mastermind was dead.

_Okay so the look might have been mischief __**and **__love if he'd been planning that little stunt when Jamie took that photo,_ Mary's voice remarked inside Frank's head. _Well our boy certainly had a sense of humour, _in agreement with his wife's voice.

"You don't need to look so worried sergeant," Frank took pity on her and reassured her, his silence after her explanation seemed to have unnerved her slightly. "After the initial explosion the dust would have settled and we would have seen the funny side." _How different that dinner would have been then. Three weeks after he died we were all still numb._ "So Joe didn't answer the phone but that can't have been the only time he hadn't answered. None of us would have known to tell you so how did you find out he'd died?"

"The detective that Joe had been working with while he was in London found out from another one of the cops who'd come over. He knew we'd been dating and so he came and told me when I came in to finish up my paperwork at the end of my shift that day."_ Yeah the worst day of my life, let's find something else to think about Copter before the waterworks start. You've still got more to tell the poor man, remember!_ "I thought about using the leave and coming over to at least see Joe's grave even if I couldn't bring myself to meet you all. But then I realised to do one I'd have to do the other, I had no idea where Joe would have been buried, I knew that your house was in Bay Ridge but even then I had no clue which cemetery, and I couldn't bring myself to try to explain this to a family who'd just lost a man as wonderful as Joe."

"But why haven't you told us some time in the past four years? That's a long time to keep something like this secret and why now?"

_Oh the million dollar question right there! Ready for bombshell number three Commissioner? Note to self Copter you really should have told someone where you were going this morning just in case the damage from this one is Hiroshima catastrophic… Damn Reagan temper, please don't come out to play!_


	5. Chapter 4

**AN: Well you've managed to make a first time publisher very happy! The reviews have been much loved and appreciated, at the time of publishing I'd replied to all of them I'm almost certain. **

**This chapter came a bit out of left field for me. It wasn't what I sat down actually intending to write at all, but our favourite family just kind of overtook me and this is the result! I'm actually very happy with this and it's not vital to the story so I think I might also post it as a one-shot with a couple of small tweaks. Anyone with an author alert on me feel free to check it out but if you get two alerts the new story is ****very**** similar to this chapter.**

**As always reviews will be treated like Faberge eggs; adored, admired, handled with the greatest care, love and respect, and then the senders get a thank you note!**

**This chapter is dedicated to geraldine123 MY FIRST EVER REVIEWER! *Very happy dance***

_From the previous chapter:_

**"But why haven't you told us some time in the past four years? That's a long time to keep something like this secret and why now?"**

**_Oh the million dollar question right there! Ready for bombshell number three Commissioner? Note to self really should have told someone where I was going this morning just in case the damage from this one is Hiroshima catastrophic…_**

The woman sitting in front of him was now looking almost as nervous as she had been when she first walked into his office. _Just how long have we been talking? _He thought suddenly, _Baker really is worth her weight in gold if she's running interference on that damn joint department meeting the mayor insisted on._

Her hands were bunching and releasing the hem of her floral top in a rhythmic fashion, obviously trying to stop them from worrying her still slightly tousled hair.

"Like I said commissioner, to start with I just didn't know how to encroach on a family's grief like that. And then after a few months I just stopped thinking it was a good was no need to go raising questions like that and making you think Joe made a habit of keeping secrets."

His instincts were telling him there was something else she wasn't telling him. He didn't know whether it was his cop instinct though. It could easily be his instinct as a father. The one which had always lead him to believe that more of the stranger incidents around the Reagan family home years before, when all his children had still been at home, were attributable to Joe than they'd ever been able to prove. Even when she was a child Erin used to stick up for her little brother whenever he or Mary had thought Joe had been up to mischief.

"But Dad, you can't _prove_ that Joe tied Danny's shoelaces into that birds nest!"

"But Dad, you can't _prove_ Joe put the dye in Grandpa's shampoo! And at least its NYPD blue!"

That had been one of the more memorable occasions his son's merry making had caused a ruckus in the house. Joe had been about 11 then and although Erin was right, they couldn't prove it _had_ been him, Joe had been unable to sit still that morning and couldn't come up with a good explanation for just _why_ he was so excited to be going to Mass. And then his father had turned up for Sunday Mass wearing a hat. Despite many odd looks from the other parishioners he had refused to remove it all through the service. And Frank remembered fondly that his boy had spent the entire service sneaking looks at his Pop and turning rapidly purple holding his breath trying not to laugh.

That had lasted until they got back to the house for dinner. When they piled out of the cars his father had turned to face them and removed the head gear. It had been all Frank could do to stop himself joining his children in their hysterical laughter. His father's hair was as blue as a smurf. Or as Erin had later tactfully pointed out it was pretty close to NYPD blue. The colour was all the more spectacular when contrasting with the red that was rapidly suffusing his face as he looked at his laughing grandchildren. Frank had diplomatically sent his offspring inside to wash their hands and set the table before turning to his father.

"Well that's new." In his defence he had tried to keep his tone as even as humanly possible when faced with a blue haired police commissioner.

"New? My hair is _blue_ Francis! And stop smirking like that! Joe's gone too far this time Francis. What if I'd had a meeting? What if there had been a problem and I had to go in?"

"Well Pop, the hat seemed to work just fine in church. And _if_ it was Joe he at least waited until the weekend."

"IF?! IF?! Francis you and I both know who did this!"

"Yes Pop, it probably was Joe but even if it was, it was all just fun. I've not seen all of them laugh like that for a long time. For heaven's sake, even Danny was in hysterics and you know how much of a moody wet blanket he's been the last few months."

"He's 16 Francis for all I know he knew about this!"

"Yes Pop, he's 16. That means he acts most of the time like his 11 year old little brother is the dirt on the bottom of his shoe! There's no way Danny knew anything about thi- "

"Erin then! She always stands up for the little…" His father had been spitting mad by this point so Frank had decided enough was enough it was a little harmless fun.

"What did Tom have to say about it?" The Reagan's had used the same little father and sons barber shop for as long as Frank could remember and knew that Tom Mallory would have been the first person his father had called when he realised what had happened.

"He said that he's in New Jersey at a wedding this weekend but he'll see me first thing Monday to try and get it out! But I already tried washing it again Francis. It. Doesn't. Come. Out!"

"Pop. Did you try washing it out with soap or shampoo?" Frank was struggling to keep a straight face at this point.

"It's in my hair Francis of course I used shampoo!"

"Did you not think that trying to wash the dye out with the same shampoo that turned it blue in the first place was probably not going to work?" He lost the battle then and couldn't help the chuckle that slipped from him as his father looked confused for a second and then realisation dawned. His father started spluttering but was beginning to look a little shamefaced at his outburst.

"Now, would you like to try and accuse Jamie of being Joe's accomplice or is my 6 year old safe? Come in and use the shower upstairs, there's soap and an unopened bottle of shampoo under the sink. See if that will help." His father had been trying to look unflustered and strode past him into the house. As Frank turned to go inside he saw the tops of four heads disappear below the window sill.

He knew he needed to say something to them, Joe had to understand that while that had been funny the first time an encore performance would not be appreciated. But at that moment he couldn't bring himself to be a disciplinarian. The look on his father's face had been too precious!

The rapid rise of Sergeant Copter startled Frank out of his reverie. She was moving back over towards the coffee pot, apparently having finished her cup although Frank could have sworn it had still been half full. Allowing both the woman and himself a minute to collect his thoughts, Frank didn't say anything until she'd poured herself another cup and was moving to sit back in the chair opposite his desk. He quickly stood, startling the red head before he motioned that they should move to the leather suite in the opposite corner of the room.

"Now why do I get the distinct impression there's something more you aren't telling me sergeant?" he said as he sank into his leather armchair. While nowhere near as comfortable as his wingback at home, he had a strange feeling that the next part of this altogether odd conversation was going to be something he'd need the extra support for.

**AN2: *Ducks* OK yes I know everyone was expecting bombshell number 3 but like I said at the start this one just kind of appeared as I was typing! Now that the Reagan's seem to have left me alone again I will endeavour to have bombshell number three dropped in Frank's (and everyone else's) laps either later tonight or tommorrow! **


	6. Chapter 5

**AN: Thanks everyone for your lovely reviews, favs, and follows! They make my day!**

**I was on a bit of a Blue Bloods binge last night and I realised I made a bit of a boo-boo! I went right back to the start (Jamie in dress blues at graduation, aww!) and realised Joe had a girlfriend/fiancee. Well all I can say is oops, my bad, in my defence she was only there for two minutes and we never heard about her ever again! So she didn't exist in my world.**

**Apart from that I've had someone ask when this is set. I'm picturing mid-season 3 so the Blue Templar have been dealt with, Jamie's done his stint undercover and he's partnered with a very much alive Vinnie Cruz. Danny is partenered with Bayez (sp?) and Linda is back working at St Vic's. **

**Now on with some bombshell dropping! (And I'm not even teasing this time!)**

_Previously on Bombshells:_

**"Now why do I get the distinct impression there's something more you aren't telling me sergeant?" he said as he sank into his leather armchair. While nowhere near as comfortable as his wingback at home, he had a strange feeling that the next part of this altogether odd conversation was going to be something he'd need the extra support for.  
**

* * *

Ellie looked up at the PC and took a deep breath. _Here goes nothing. Joe, if you're watching this I could really do with a little support and understanding right about now! _She'd thought long and hard about this on flight to New York from London. Bombshells like the ones she'd been tossing the man's way were not her usual bread and butter.

"If I'm totally honest I stayed away partly because I was nervous. I'd been nervous when we finally agreed I should come and meet everyone and after his death that nervousness never went away. It got mixed in with a dash of guilt that maybe I should have insisted Joe tell you when we got serious. And more than a little embarrassment, it's not normal in this day and age to fall in love so quick. Everyone expects you to take your time, there's no need to hurry, you can't possibly say you know he's it, you've only known the guy a month! That kind of thing works its way into your head and you come to expect it from people. I just started thinking maybe it was all for the best that I stayed away. And then there's the other part -" _Bombshell number three coming right up._

She realised that she _knew_ the feeling that had knotted in her belly the instant she woke up that morning. She just wasn't used to feeling it for such a long period of time. _I'm giving the man a notification. Sure no one's died, well okay Joe not recently, but I am about to turn his world upside down. Even more than I already have. _With that epiphany the sick feeling in her stomach passed. Life-changing news she could do.

Notifications were one of the worst parts of her job but once you'd ripped one person's world to pieces you had to learn quickly how to deal with it. Simple fact was you couldn't do your job if you couldn't find some way to deal with that first notice, and in her seven years as an officer she'd learned to box away the feeling and be strong.

"You have no right to feel sad or upset." That was what her supervising officer had told her before they got in the car to do her first ever notification. "Your _job,_ is to not have that right. It is to be the unflinching pillar that they can lean on, however briefly, once you've shredded their universe. If you fall to pieces then they can't see that one day it will be possible to face the awful fact and carry on. It will never be the same for them but the earth will keep spinning and they eventually need to find a way to make peace with that fact."

She'd originally thought Sgt Luke Norton to be the spawn of Satan when he said that. How could he be so callous? How was she supposed to stop feeling like the worst person in the world? How was she to stop feeling like she was about to be violently sick and start crying in sympathy?

But as she'd stood on the doorstep of that old Victorian terrace that night, the one with the freshly painted window frames that still reeked of new oil paint, and as she'd watched the woman through the mullioned door window realise that the two police officers on her porch would not be there for any good reason at 2.26am she understood. Understood that giving up that right didn't mean she was a hard hearted and miserable spawn of Satan.

It meant you had to have the biggest heart.

It meant that you had to care so much about the person receiving some of the worst news of their life that you were prepared to sacrifice a little of yourself. Of your fundamental _need _to be a part of the experience of those around you, to be accepted by them. You gave up that right. You stood apart. Unflappable. Unshakeable. Unchanging.

You became their anchor.

_I have to be his anchor_, she thought, _even if he hates me afterwards at this moment I **will** be his anchor._ _Not because it's my job though. Not this time. This time it's because we were wrong Joe. We never should have kept any of this secret._

_*BB*BB*BB*BB*_

Frank heard her stop herself and yet again search for exactly the right words. Saw as she gave up on trying to explain verbally and instead reached into the small bag she still had slung over her shoulder. And then he was moving on autopilot reaching out to take the small object she had handed him.

"That's the other reason I stayed away." _A photograph? _Was his first thought as he took the small picture wallet she had offered. _What earthly reason could a photograph give for her shutting us out of this part of Joe's life? _

When he opened the small wallet he initially couldn't understand what he was looking at. He'd been expecting a wedding photo or something equally astounding. Not that he ever thought any son of his would start a relationship with a married woman. _No, but you never thought any of them would hide something as important as a woman they were obviously in love with either, _he thought dryly as his eyes refocused on the image in the wallet.

Then his thoughts went blank.

_*BB*BB*BB*BB* _

_(AN: I thought of finishing it here but I couldn't do that to you all again!)_

Ellie could tell the instant he understood what she'd handed him. She'd seen the look too often on the job to not notice the initial glassy eyed confusion as his brain failed to compute the information coming in from his senses.

Then, from one heartbeat to the next, he understood.

His hands tightened their grip on the picture in his hands; it looked so small in comparison to his massive paws. His eyes widened just a smidgen. One breath seemed to stop, only to over compensate the next.

Then he was looking up at her. "What is this?" She could hear the disbelief and hurt returning to his voice full force. But they were insignificant compared to the anger colouring his quiet voice.

_Well that's a surprise. Joe you never said your dad was a quiet kind of angry. I was expecting the fireworks you used to light off when you lost your temper. Instead it feels like the temperature just dropped 200 degrees and I'm in close, confined space with a bear that I just poked with one hell of a stick!_

She forced herself to look him straight in the stormy eyes, eyes that were so like his son's. _I am an anchor. I will not flinch._

"It's a sonogram sir. It's the first picture I ever had of my daughter. Your granddaughter." She had to swallow back her tears. _Anchor. Unflinching. _

"Joe's daughter."


	7. Chapter 6

**AN: So I know I haven't had a chance to reply to all your lovely reviews! The internet here's been going screwy and I'm flat out with uni stuff so my updates might be a little unpredictable for the next month or so. I will be writing/publishing every chance I get though, it's my stress relief!**

**So this updated is dedicated to all my lovely guest reviewers, and those with PM'ing disabled that I haven't been able to reply to in person! Enjoy it guys!**

_Previously on Bombshells:_

**She forced herself to look him straight in the stormy eyes, eyes that were so like his son's. ****_I am an anchor. I will not flinch._**

**"It's a sonogram sir. It's the first picture I ever had of my daughter. Your granddaughter." She had to swallow back her tears. ****_Anchor. Unflinching. _**

**"Joe's daughter."**

* * *

Frank couldn't think clearly. His world seemed to have narrowed to the small picture in his hands. The indistinct, monochrome blob was no less mesmerizing for the fact it was barely recognisable as a human being. _Joe's daughter._ _Joe has a daughter. I have a granddaughter. _

"I have another granddaughter?" He could barely bring himself to tear his eyes away from the picture, but he needed answers from the woman in front of him. She was watching him like a hawk.

"Her name is Madeline." And just like that Ellie found the flood gate burst. She couldn't stop the rush as she saw his anger melting once again into shocked disbelief.

"Her birthday's November third. She was born almost two weeks early; I went into labour in the evidence room at the station. She's three, almost four. And you wanted to know why I came here to tell you now? Why not when I found out I was pregnant or when Maddy was born?

"Because I was a _mess, _Commissioner. I didn't even realise I was pregnant until I was more than four months along! And only then because one of the other girls from the station found me sobbing over the fact I couldn't get my uniform trousers to zip. She just asked me how far along I was and I didn't even know what she was talking about. Then I wouldn't believe her until she dragged me up to the hospital for an ultrasound! I've kept that copy of the sonogram in my bag ever since. It was the only thing that got me to screw my head back on to some kind of resemblance of straight. I'd kind of gone to pieces after what happened to Joe. Not knowing anything just made it worse, but then I found out about Maddy and … I just had to try and get back on an even keel."

_Madeline. Maddy. My granddaughter. _"Madeline what?"

"Madeline Josephine Copter. And the reason I'm telling you now is - she asked me. The other day, she turned to me in the supermarket and said, 'Mummy, where's my daddy?' And I didn't have any answers. My little girl is growing up without her dad and I can't say why. They say from the mouths of babes and she just made me realise I wasn't being fair to her. Or to all of you. Joe and I made a mistake, and all I've done is to make it a thousand times worse." She sighed then and Frank could see the weariness and the weight of her loss written all over her face, just as he'd seen it in his own reflection in the months after Joe's death. He realised then it had only started to disappear after he had found out why Joe had died, and, in his darker moments, it eased further when he remembered the peace that had settled on him when Sonny Malevsky had pulled the trigger of the hand gun under his jaw. He'd had more than one conversation with Father McMurray in confession over those particular thoughts.

"I don't expect anything from you Commissioner, or from your family, but I realised you have a right to know all of this. And you have a right to know Maddy, if you want to."

"Of course I want to know my granddaughter!" She surely couldn't believe he wouldn't want to meet her. Joe's little girl. "Madeline _Josephine_?"

"I wanted to give her a little piece of Joe; it was all I had to give her."

"And she's Copter, not Reagan?" He'd finally released his death grip on the sonogram and handed it back to her. He felt oddly calm. Maybe they hadn't lost all of Joe. _Please God, please give us this little piece of my boy._

"Part of me wanted to give her Joe's name, but without knowing how he or you would have felt about it I just - I couldn't. If she finds out more about her dad and wants to change it as she gets older then, I won't have any objections."

She was still watching him intently, but he thought she seemed lighter than she had when she walked into his office. _She's been relieved of one hell of a burden._ _Four years of keeping Joe's secret. Jamie was stressed enough after keeping the Blue Templar debacle to himself for a few months. _

"When can I meet her? What's she like? Where is she now?"

"She's at the hotel. Please don't look at me like that, I've been a single mum for almost four years. I didn't leave my three year old in the hotel alone! I spent hours trawling through hotel reviews on the flight over here before I chose the one with the most glowing childcare references. The hotel has a crèche with a qualified early childhood teacher. The only thing I didn't do was run a background check, and only then because our system at the Met wouldn't do me much good! Maddy will be well looked after and safe until two this afternoon. You can meet her this evening if you'd like. I have one more errand I'd like to run before I head back to the hotel and to be entirely honest sir, I'm surprised Detective Baker has been able to stall your schedule as long as she has."

"I'd like to meet her, I'd also really like for the family to meet her." At that she looked almost as terrified as she had been when she walked into his office. "I'll tell them what you've told me, but they have just as much right to get to know Joe's daughter as I do. She's their family too. How long are you in New York?" He didn't want to think about what would happen when she went back to London, his granddaughter would be in another country, it would almost be like losing Joe all over again.

"I have flights back home booked for three weeks time. We're booked at the hotel for a week. I thought that if you kicked me out of here then we could go upstate for a bit if I couldn't get us earlier flights."

"You thought I'd kick you out?"

"Joe told me about the Reagan temper commissioner, and I've seen it in action. Life wasn't all sunshine and lollipops for Joe and I, we both had tempers. Two short fuses like ours made for some fairly spectacular fireworks displays."

He thought rapidly about his schedule for the next three weeks, if that was going to be all the time he had with his granddaughter for who knew how long he wanted to spend as much of it as possible with her. "If I came to your hotel before heading home tonight would that be okay with you?"

"Maddy's bedtime is 7.00 but I could push it out a little if you have to stay late…"

"I'll be there by 6.30 and I'd like to tell the others tonight." He saw that the green colour was rapidly starting to tinge her skin again. "I can tell them, you don't need to repeat it again for them to hear. I'll tell them what they need to know and then you could come to the house tomorrow?"

"If they want to meet Maddy, and if she wants to meet them after she meets you tonight, then I'll bring her to you at about 11 tomorrow morning." She looked slightly uncomfortable at the idea of coming to the house, she was playing with the hem of her shirt again. Frank realised she hadn't said anything about _her_ staying around to meet the rest of the family.

"You'd both be welcome at the house you know." She looked slightly embarrassed at being caught out.

"I wouldn't – I mean that's to say – I…I don't know if everyone will be as forgiving as you seem to be commissioner. Four years is a long time for me to have kept this - kept Maddy from you."

"It is," he was determined to keep his tone understanding. Angry he may still be feeling underneath his newfound hope but he was determined to not direct it at her. The young sergeant had been put in an awful position, and no small amount of the blame for that rested with his son. _How could you ever think keeping that secret was a good idea Joe? Did you really think we'd have a problem with her? _

"But, I understand now that Joe left you in an awkward position and his death left its scars on us all."


	8. Chapter 7

**AN: Just a quick update snatched in a study break. Again a chapter which got away from me. This time it wasn't Frank misbehaving but BAKER! So here's a new chapter for all my lovely reviewers and followers and favouriters! Life at 1PP according to Det Abigail Baker!**

_Previously on Bombshells:_

**"I wouldn't – I mean that's to say – I…I don't know if everyone will be as forgiving as you seem to be commissioner. Four years is a long time for me to have kept this - kept Maddy from you."**

**"It is," he was determined to keep his tone understanding. Angry he may still be feeling underneath his newfound hope but he was determined to not direct it at her. The young sergeant had been put in an awful position, and no small amount of the blame for that rested with his son. ****_How could you ever think keeping that secret was a good idea Joe? Did you really think we'd have a problem with her? _**

**"But, I understand now that Joe left you in an awkward position and his death left its scars on us all."**

* * *

Detective (1st Grade) Abigail Baker had heard the things that she was called around the precincts of New York City. That she didn't deserve her title of detective. That she was just a pretty face (and that was when they were being polite) in a skirt, a glorified secretary. Even that she'd slept her way up the ranks when they were feeling particularly malicious.

None of that was true of course. She'd grown up in a family of cops, her father, both uncles and two of her cousins had joined the force. While her older sister had chosen to become a doctor, Abigail had never felt a call for anything except the blue uniforms she'd seen her family wear. She'd loved her time on the beat working tours out of the 3-5, but when the chance came to make the move to the detective bureau she jumped at it.

She'd spent her more junior years bouncing between vice and serious frauds. She'd enjoyed the pace of the work in vice but it had been in serious frauds that she'd made a real mark, she had a head for numbers and didn't mind the hours of trawling through paperwork that it entailed. She got promoted to a special investigations unit run under the serious frauds office and it was there that she first came to meet Frank Reagan. A high level white collar operation was being run out of a less than desirable area of Brooklyn South, Deputy Chief Reagan was supervising the final takedown and was surprised by the fact that she had experience in the new modified takedown strategy they were employing. He was even more shocked when he found out she was part of the group who'd championed its development in the vice unit.

She'd liked the man then. He was a straight shooter, never undervalued any of the men and women under his command, and had the bearing and grace (a strange word to apply to such a large man) to deal with all of the rubbish that was poured on the operation by the politicians concerned with the involvement of some very high level Wall Street figures. She wasn't surprised when the announcement came that he had become commissioner.

What had been a surprise was the call she got at end of her day asking her to stop by the 14th floor of 1PP. When she got there she'd been ushered straight in, only to see an office which was obviously in the midst of changing hands. There were boxes on every available surface and in the middle of the chaos was the newly commissioner of the NYPD. The harassed looking lieutenant who had ushered her through the door plainly had a hundred other things to be doing at that moment and the commissioner himself looked more than a little lost.

"Detective Baker, nice to see you again." The man never failed to be the epitome of a gentleman she remembered thinking.

"Commissioner Reagan, congratulations sir." He was so new to the position that he still looked taken aback by his new title.

"Baker I've been asking around and I'm yet to find anyone with a poor word to say about you." He was watching her intently but she had no idea just why she was standing in his office, remembering the straightforward way the man operated she told him so.

"I find myself in something of a spot detective. My schedule has just gone from busy to simply unmanageable it. I'd like to offer you a position as my aide." Her initial thoughts about the position must have shown on her face, she had thought when he had supervised their operation he had been impressed with her work as a detective, not the glorified secretarial work she somehow ended up with more than her fair share of at serious frauds. Everyone just lumped her with extra because she was a formidable perfectionist with her time management and so usually seemed to have less paperwork.

"I don't just mean just paper pushing detective so hear me out before you give me your answer. The hours are going to be long; you'd be living on my schedule and dealing with everything I have to. You would be running my entire schedule. You would have to take extra courses in close protection detail, because you'd be an integral part of protection unit one. But I know you are a detective, I'd be willing to let you take your pick of the frauds cases you can handle alone, and you can be involved in as many of the takedowns as the schedule would permit. You'd obviously receive a pay increase and you'd be moving to salary as there would be no way I could ever get the bean-counters to approve as much overtime as would be demanded by the job."

"It's nothing I've ever really thought of sir." That was an understatement if ever she'd said one. To be able to pick her own cases out of the frauds was one hell of a carrot for the commissioner to be dangling in front of her. The trade off seemed fair, to use her fanatical time management for something other than having enough free time to do everyone else's paperwork was a small price to pay for the opportunity he was offering her.

"I understand it's a shock detective but you were my first thought when I saw the schedule I'm now dealing with. You impressed on that job in Brooklyn South. I'm not going to lie to you Baker, given a few more years there's every chance you could be running serious frauds, but I'd like to steal your talents. I've read your file, you're fluent is seven languages, and everyone I've spoken to has said you are the most efficient worker they have ever known. I'm a detective Baker, turning in the shield and moving into this office is not going to change that. There are going to be times when I will be pursuing cases and I'd appreciate your help in those situations too. But as I said, I would be asking a lot of you, and asking you to give up a lot, I'd understand if you said no."

The earnest look on his face was what convinced her in the end. Her instincts were telling her that this was a commissioner who would be doing everything in his power to make New York safer. Who understood implicitly the true meaning of to serve and protect. And who had absolutely underestimated just how different his life was going to be when he had turned in the shield and accepted the position of commissioner.

"I'd like to take the job sir."

And just like that her entire career had changed. Were there days she wished she'd turned him down? Definitely, particularly when she had to roll out of bed at three am for some crisis or another. More than once she had barely got out of her shower, looking forward to nothing more than falling into bed and sleeping for eight hours straight, when her phone would ring and she'd be in the car on the way to the Reagan home in Bay Ridge to brief the commissioner.

But she knew deep down she wouldn't change it for the world.

Her instincts that she had honed on the streets and later as a detective had been repurposed. Now, rather than trying to get a read on a suspect, she was learning as much as she possibly could about the next person on the PC's schedule. She was using her fearsome time management abilities to run not only her own life and cases but the schedule of one of the hardest working men she had ever met. And true to his word, even now she was allowed to pursue her frauds cases to her heart's content.

Nothing happened in the upper levels of the NYPD that Abigail Baker did not know about. Not just the things she passed on to the PC, but the gossip and nasty back room politics as well. Who was cheating on their wives, who was trying to poach resources from who, and who was angling to roust Commissioner Frank Reagan from his position. These were the little details which she and Garret had used on more than one occasion to smooth things between departments and to control some of the more unruly hot heads working out of 1PP.

So when she got an early morning phone call from a sergeant from the London Metropolitan Police asking for a face to face meeting with the PC her cop's curiosity kicked into high gear. She had told the woman about the shortened briefing with the mayor in the hope that she would take the opportunity and Sgt Elizabeth Copter did not disappoint. She'd arrived about ten minutes before the mayor had left, leaving Baker plenty of time to observe her. Petite, but with a take no prisoners attitude that Baker recognised and admired. It appeared that female police officers in London learned the same lessons as their compatriots in New York, that you could not take any shtick from anyone if you wanted to do your job effectively. Whether the attitude was studied or a natural side effect of the sergeant's red hair Baker couldn't quite decide. Sgt Copter also looked more than a little nervous as the minutes ticked by, but she hid it well when Baker had finally ushered her into the commissioner's office about thirty minutes prior.

She'd been doing her best to hold off the mayor's PA, Angela Harcourt, as she kept phoning wanting to know just where Commissioner Reagan was, because he wasn't in the joint emergency department meeting the mayor had scheduled. Something was telling Baker that Sgt Copter's meeting was important and she shouldn't interrupt it, but when Angela said that the mayor was on his way back to 1PP to physically drag the commissioner to the meeting she knew she couldn't hold off any longer.

She knocked tentatively on the door and without waiting for an answer headed inside to bring Frank Reagan back into contact with the rest of the earth.


	9. Chapter 8

**AN: Love to all my readers, gosh I can't WAIT for Fridays episode! Looks like more edge of the seat stuff from our favourite family! Well here's the next part of Bombshells! **

**Again Frank is moving much more slowly than I had planned but hopefully he will let me write about the big reveal to the family tonight and today just may be another double chapter day****_!_**

_Previously on Bombshells:_

**She'd been doing her best to hold off the mayor's PA, Angela Harcourt, as she kept phoning wanting to know just where Commissioner Reagan was, because he wasn't in the joint emergency department meeting the mayor had scheduled. Something was telling Baker that Sgt Copter's meeting was important and she shouldn't interrupt it, but when Angela said that the mayor was on his way back to 1PP to physically drag the commissioner to the meeting she knew she couldn't hold off any longer.**

**She knocked tentatively on the door and without waiting for an answer headed inside to bring Frank Reagan back into contact with the rest of the earth.**

* * *

The knock on the door startled both of them. Frank looked up to see Baker standing just inside the door, almost managing to hide her curiosity about his meeting. Anyone who didn't spend as much time around the contained young woman as he did would have no clue what she was thinking but she was nothing if not entirely professional and so she managed to contain her curiosity.

"Commissioner the mayor is threatening to come and drag you to your joint department meeting. Something about it being absolutely impossible to get you and the fire commissioner in the same room at the same time," she gently reminded him.

Elizabeth looked almost relieved for the reprieve, "I'll see you this evening then commissioner Reagan." Frank's attention was once again solely on the young woman who had turned his entire world upside down.

"Yes Sergeant Copter. Is there anything else I can do for you before you leave?" _What are you asking, this isn't some damn business meeting. This is the mother of your granddaughter! Anything else I can do for you…_

"Actually Commissioner there is one thing. I'd like to know where Joe's buried. It's been more than four years, I'd like to go see him." Frank heard Baker's not quite quiet enough intake of breath as another piece of her puzzle slotted together. _I'll have to fill her in as well. I'll need her to clear as much of the schedule as I can. Damn mayor can't his damn meeting wait! _

"He's buried in Bay Ridge Cemetery Sergeant. If you follow the main path from the gate into the cemetery about halfway in there's a beech tree, the Reagan plot is there. You might have to do a bit of hunting but it is very close to the path so it shouldn't be too difficult."

Frank watched as she carefully returned the sonogram she'd still been holding to her bag and removed a notepad in which she efficiently wrote the information. _Some things don't change, _Frank thought wryly, _no cop ever leaves without their notepad._ Even though he'd been PC for more than five years, Frank Reagan hadn't managed to shake that particular habit himself either. Then he realised he didn't actually know where the young woman and his granddaughter were staying!

"Which hotel am I heading to this evening sergeant?" Baker's mask was definitely slipping by this point, she had nothing in his schedule for that evening.

"The Oak Apartments, commissioner. We are staying in apartment 144 but we could meet you in the lobby and then go to the park across the road. It would give Maddy a chance to get some fresh air before she turns in. I'll see you at about 6.30 then sir. It was a pleasure to meet you." Elizabeth started walking towards the door smiling at a very confused Baker as she passed, "Detective."

And with that she left his office leaving a distinctly shell shocked PC and a very confused first grade detective in her wake. True to form it was Baker who recovered first returning to her professional default when it became plain that she wasn't going to be getting any answers from her boss in the immediate future, "Commissioner, your detail's waiting downstairs."

"One minute Baker." She was heading rapidly towards concerned by this point. There had only been a few times she had seen Frank Reagan looking this preoccupied, and there was no doubt that the man she was looking at was _not_ the police commissioner of New York City, this was Frank Reagan looking as though someone had just told him that the sky was purple and that pigs _could_ in fact, fly. This had something to do with the Reagan family, and that only piqued her interest in the petite English sergeant even more.

When it became clear that they _were_ going to need a minute she sent a quick message to the lieutenant in charge of the PC's detail, and another to Angela Harcourt saying they were on their way but the traffic may cause some delay and there was no need for the mayor to come searching for his PC, in order to buy them a few minutes. She then went to the seat opposite Frank that had been so recently vacated by a petite redhead.

"What do you _need_ Frank?" The question was innocent enough but the familiar address let him know that she was not simply asking as his aide but as one of his closest advisors and friends. Garrett used his given name most of the time but when it came from Baker, Frank knew exactly who he was talking to. Just like with his family, he and Baker kept their conversations in two discrete classes, professional and personal, this was definitely a personal conversation now.

"I don't know Abigail. The world's gone upside down. Sergeant Copter. She knew Joe." _Well that explained her asking about his grave. What about the meeting this evening though? And who on earth is Maddy?_ "They were together." _Oh dear, this is going to get messy. _

"When? How did they meet?"

"When Joe took part in the swap with the London Met. They met while he was in London and then they were going to introduce her to the family. But Joe…" _Yep, definitely a mess. _She watched as Frank visibly tried to pull himself together and failed. She knew the man in front of her well enough now to know that meant there was more to the story.

"What else Frank? I know there's something else." He raised his head to look her in the eyes and she couldn't piece together the mess of emotions swirling through them.

"She – They - " He couldn't find the words. Then he closed his mouth took a breath. "I have a granddaughter Abigail. She and Joe have a daughter." _Well this isn't just a mess, this is a disaster! _

Abigail thought back to her memories of Joe Reagan. She'd been introduced to the entire Reagan clan shortly after she'd accepted the job with the PC. She'd commented about his insistence on her keeping his Sundays clear except for absolute imminent disaster.

When he explained that the entire Reagan family were still practicing Catholics who followed their Sunday Mass with a full family dinner she couldn't help the pang of jealousy she felt. Her own family had drifted apart after the girls left home, her parents had never really approved of her joining the force and her sister simply didn't have much time in a crammed but very successful career as a trauma surgeon at NY Presbyterian. They still saw each other on the holidays but their contact outside those obligatory family holidays was limited. The idea of a family so closely connected as the Reagans was almost alien, but so appealing.

Anyway the conversation had led to an invitation to join the family for a Sunday dinner and she had gladly accepted, curious to see just how such a family was even possible. She'd enjoyed herself immensely and still remembered the jovial conversation that had flown freely across a packed dinner table. She'd expected to be somewhat sidelined by the family but had been hauled straight into an argument between a tightly wound Erin and a very vocal Danny about a case he'd been working which she had refused to get a search warrant for.

It had been Abigail who had suggested that maybe a search into the shell company registration with the IRS may yield the name that Danny had been looking for for weeks. She had thought he just might kiss her he'd been so stunned and overjoyed to have such a break. It had been Joe who turned to her and deadpanned that that was the quickest he had ever seen anyone shut up an argument between the two of them and whether she was available to play referee every Sunday.

After that initial meeting she'd seen the Reagan siblings, with the exception of Jamie who had returned to Harvard that night, on a fairly regular basis. She and Erin had become good friends in all the time they spent waiting around outside Frank's office waiting for meetings to finish. She'd never quite managed such an easy relationship with Danny but they were courteous enough, talking briefly about their various cases even though she knew he had nowhere near enough patience to understand some of her more nuanced special frauds cases. But Joe had always been a ray of sunshine whenever he'd arrive on the 14th floor to have a chat with his father. He used to call her Moneypenny and their banter had at times resembled that between the world famous spy and receptionist. She had been horrified when they got the news that he'd been killed in the line of duty and had had a sadly personal view of the devastation it had wreaked on the family she had once so envied.

_What have you __**done**__ Joe? And you aren't even around to handle the fallout you ridiculous man!_

She couldn't imagine just what was flying through her boss' head at that moment, but whatever it was seemed to have resolved itself into some kind of order as the disorientated look began to leave his eyes and suddenly the police commissioner was back in his office.

"Baker?"

"Yes sir?"

"I need you to keep my schedule clear this evening. I'll be heading to the Oak Apartments for 1830 and then home. I also need you to clear as much of my schedule as possible for the next three weeks, I intend to get to know my granddaughter and sergeant Copter much better before they return to London. And please phone around the family and ask them to meet me at the house tonight, about 2030 should do it."

"Consider it done Commissioner, and your detail are ready downstairs sir. We really do need to leave for that meeting now."

And just like that Abigail Baker had her next assignment, integrating sergeant Copter and her and Joe's daughter Maddy into the tight knit Reagan family.


	10. Chapter 9

**AN: Well you're lucky, the muse has been vicious today and has stopped me doing any of the study I meant to! **

**You benefit from my procrastination though and you have the longest thing outside of a uni assignment that I've ever written. Still no family reaction but the muse hasn't let up yet, so today may even become a triple bill! It is ridiculously long but I just couldn't find a good place to cut it! So enjoy! Reviews are still loved and adored ;)**

_Previously on Bombshells:_

**"Consider it done Commissioner, and your detail are ready downstairs sir. We really do need to leave for that meeting now."**

**And just like that Abigail Baker had her next assignment, integrating sergeant Copter and her and Joe's daughter Maddy into the tight knit Reagan family.**

* * *

Frank had barely been able to focus all afternoon. His mind had been running and rerunning the conversation that had turned his world inside out. _Joe's daughter. Maddy. Madeline Josephine. A very pretty name indeed. Is she like him? Does she look like any of us? _

His meeting with the mayor, the fire commissioner and the heads of several of the city's major hospitals had been an absolute chore but he'd managed to force himself to focus enough for most of it so he knew they'd been discussing strategies for the containment of a biological attack on the city. Baker would have taken enough extra notes that he could catch up later that evening.

Baker. How he would have survived the last five years as commissioner without that wonder by his side he honestly had no idea, as far as he was concerned she deserved a medal. The mayor often made comments about trying to entice her away from the police department and into City Hall but Frank knew she wouldn't leave. The mayor only knew one side of the incredible woman. Frank knew her not just as Baker his right hand, but as Detective A. Baker, formidable frauds detective and vice squad member; and as Abigail, one of the kindest, gentlest and most loyal women he had ever had the privilege to call a friend.

When she had first met his family Frank had been surprised at how well she managed to blend in, even dealing with one of his eldest children's abrasive Sunday arguments as easily as she dealt with anything that got sent her way at the office. She'd hit it off so well with Joe that Frank had secretly suspected there may be something between them, and he would not have had a bad word to say about it. _And you call yourself a Detective Frank Reagan? Right under your nose for months and you couldn't tell your boy was in love? And now you have to try and explain the whole situation to everyone else._

He realised then just how hard it must have been for the young Met officer to walk into his office that morning. Ever since he'd had Baker call the family telling them to come over that evening he'd been fielding anxious text messages from his children. He'd simply replied telling them that it was not anything life threatening but it was important and he would tell them all tonight. The truth was he couldn't face the idea of telling them each individually, this was something the whole family needed to hear together. _No wonder she couldn't stand the thought of having to tell it all twice over. _

His thoughts now though were heading a thousand miles away from the stack of paperwork on his desk; he was focussed on the clock in the corner of his office as it ticked inexorably closer to 1800 when he and his detail were leaving to go to the Oak Apartments.

As soon as he had returned to his office after the meeting he had fired up his computer and used it to find out everything the NYPD and the internet in general knew about the Oak Apartments. There had been a domestic call out to the place three years ago which resulted in an assault arrest against a 30 year old male who had tracked down his run away wife and had been intent on bringing her back to their home in Iowa, the man was now serving a five year sentence for grievous domestic assault, assault on a police officer and resisting arrest.

Just as the young sergeant had said, the childcare arrangements had glowing recommendations, but just to be absolutely certain Frank had run the staff through the NYPD database. They all came back clean except for a night security officer who had a DUI conviction from 10 years ago and a member of the cleaning staff who had been arrested for possession of marijuana in her teens but had no record since. Satisfied that there were no immediate concerns with the place Frank's mind had settled slightly and he had made a sterling effort of working his way steadily through his paperwork. That had lasted until about 1630 when he ran out of urgent paperwork and his mind had begun to drift to his plans for the evening.

A knock on the door shook him from his reverie and he looked up to see Baker standing in the doorway. "It's time for us to go Commissioner. Once we arrive there the detail will fall back to a discrete distance and leave you and the sergeant to your business."

"Thank you Baker." Frank felt a sensation in the pit of his stomach he couldn't remember having since his first tour after he graduated from the academy. He couldn't quite believe that the thought of meeting a three year old girl could give him the same feeling of butterflies that meeting his gruff training officer had given him then.

Only hopefully this meeting went better than that one. It still caused his father much hilarity to recount how a young Trainee Officer F. Reagan, intent on getting off on the best foot, had been considerate enough to bring his new TO a steaming cup of coffee, only to trip over his unlaced boot and pour said steaming cup of coffee all over a shocked Sergeant McElroy! Frank allowed his thoughts to drift as he got into the car, and they made their way towards the Oaks.

_*BB*BB*BB*BB*_

Ellie made it back to the Oaks at half past one. The trip to Joe's grave had been hard. She hadn't been prepared for just how raw the wound that Joe's death had left in her chest still was. She'd spent almost an hour sitting by his headstone crying and spilling her guts, telling him everything he'd missed in her life; about Maddy, about her promotion to sergeant last year which had come with a transfer to her dream department in the Met, the mounted police.

Joe had been one of only a few people she had confided that dream to, she didn't want the blokes at work thinking she was a girly horse lover (even if a part of her still secretly wished her dad _had _brought her a pony for her eighth, ninth or tenth birthdays!) She got enough crap on the job because of her size; barely scratching five foot six and built like a pixie was _not _the ideal body type for a police officer, letting on that she actually enjoyed being a _girl_ sometimes was just asking for more practical jokes and banter to turn her way. Not that she couldn't give as good as she got, but she just preferred to be the one giving it out!

It wasn't the first time she'd talked to Joe since his death. She still, even four years later, spoke to him most nights before she went to sleep. On the best nights those conversations were followed by dreams of her and Joe (and later Maddy had joined them) talking, laughing and living the life that they had spoken so much about. In the beginning waking from those dreams had hurt so much she had cried most mornings when she realised it had been a dream. But the longer it went on the rarer the dreams became and the more she came to treasure them than hate them.

But the dreams weren't her only contact with Joe. Underneath her bed back in London there was a box. It had been a present from her dad for her sixteenth birthday; he had said she was old enough to have secrets, dreams and things which deserved a safe place to be kept secret forever. The box was a solid antique made of cedar and carved on top with the figure of a saint. Her father explained that the cedar was used historically to prevent insects damaging the books and papers that would have been stored inside, and the saint (after some enquiries to the local Catholic church) was St Raymond Nonnatus; patron saint of midwives and obstetricians, he was also the saint invoked when keeping secrets as the patron saint of priests taking confessions.

So her box of secrets had some divine help, and as a teenager it had been full of lists of boys she and her friends had crushes on and places they dreamed of going. It had been where she had stored her application to police training college until she'd had the guts to tell her dad she was joining the Met. And now it was where she kept her letters to Joe. She'd started doing it when he'd moved back to New York, they talked almost every day but she still wrote him a letter every Friday night, she'd spray them with perfume and seal them with a kiss; it was sappy as hell, but it made her smile to think of the traces of her that would still be on the paper when it reached him in New York. She had maintained the tradition after he died, but rather than posting his letters, she would carefully put them in her box of treasures and pray for St Raymond Nonnatus to deliver them to Joe in Heaven, still sealed with a kiss and a spray of perfume.

She had shaken off the lingering sadness as she walked into the lobby of the Oaks and headed to the crèche at the rear with a passing smile to the helpful girl on the front desk. Opening the door of the crèche she peered in to see the small group of children sitting in a circle on the floor obviously playing some kind of game, involving a blindfolded child in the centre and a set of keys that were being passed around the outer circle. She smiled at the younger woman who was running the game with a watchful eye and waited patiently for the game to draw to a close. As the circle broke up a little bundle of energy spotted her at the door and came flying at her like a guided missile.

"MUMMY!" Ellie couldn't help the grin on her face as she bent down and swept up the over-excited little girl in a tight embrace ignoring the brown curls which were tickling her nose.

"Maddy! Have you had a good day?" She braced herself for the torrent of chatter she was about to get.

"It was so much fun Mum, come and meet my new friend Miss Taylor, she's really nice, and this is Michael, he wasn't very nice when I got here this morning but we're friends now, and that's Charlotte but she said I had to call her Charlie because she hates Charlotte like I make people call me Maddy because I don't like Madeline, and we painted pictures this morning Mummy, I painted us in the big plane that we flew through the air in to get here." All of that came flooding out of her little ball of energy in one big breath as Ellie found herself towed towards the young woman, obviously Miss Taylor, who ran the centre.

"Mummy, this is Miss Taylor, she's really great she helped me paint the birds in my painting," Maddy announced.

"Alison Taylor, nice to meet you Mrs Copter," the young woman held her hand out and Ellie shook it politely.

"It's just Miss, Alison, pleasure to meet you too. Thanks for looking after the energiser bunny all day." The young woman laughed.

"Yes she certainly can keep going! Does she crash and burn at the end of the day?"

"Oh, you have no idea, it's all go from the time she wakes up until her body just shuts down around 7. Then I get to breathe!"

"Well she's been an absolute pleasure to have here today. Will she be back tomorrow?" Ellie looked down at Maddy who had dashed off to start jabbering at a hundred miles an hour with another little girl. At the mention of the next day she had abruptly remembered her plans for the evening and the next day, she felt ill all over again.

"No we have plans tomorrow and we'll play it by ear from then on. Thanks again for having her today." Ellie reached into her bag for her purse and tipped the young woman who looked very happy with the extra cash. She then looked for her little pocket rocket and found her on the other side of the room collecting a painting from a little clothesline on the wall.

"Come on Maddy! Time for us to go." When her little girl returned to her side Ellie reached down and grabbed her hand and began walking towards the door. At the door Maddy stopped, turned around and said goodbye to the entire room, more than half of the kids chorused her farewell back to her and then Maddy was ready for the rest of her day with her Mum.

Ellie had the rest of the afternoon planned. After a quick sit down upstairs where she made herself a cup of tea and gave Maddy a biscuit and a glass of apple juice while being appropriately encouraging of her daughter's artistic talent, even if the birds were almost as big as the plane and she and Maddy had melded into some kind of flesh coloured two headed blob monster looking out of an incredibly out of proportion aeroplane window. She made Maddy tell her the rules, no talking to strangers, no running off on her own and if she did get separated from mummy she was to go up to the first policeman she saw and tell him she had lost her mummy and she had mummy's number in her pocket.

It was something she had drilled into Maddy from the first time they had gone into the city when Maddy was capable of toddling around without holding her hand. Maddy put the laminated piece of bright green paper into her pocket, and Ellie smiled, she could remember writing it the day before they had gone to a teddy bear's picnic in Hyde Park when Maddy was a little over two, it said:

_Hi my name is Madeline Josephine Copter, my mummy is a police woman but I've lost her! Her number is 01303892406 please help me find her!_

Then she had a horrible thought, Maddy knew what police looked like in London, but here in New York they wore different uniforms! "Maddy, you know mummy's police uniform back home is black?"

Her three year old was looking at her like she was an idiot, "yes Mummy, you wear it _all_ the time!"

"Maddy this is important! You know we got on the plane and we flew here to New York? Well we're in a different place and police here don't look the same. Here the police wear blue, and they have funny looking flat blue hats."

"Why do the police wear different things here Mummy?" The question was innocent enough but like so many other things her daughter had asked her over the years Ellie was left scrambling for an answer.

"Umm… well… they work for different people Mads, so to make sure they don't get mixed up with other police they wear different clothes." _Gosh I hope that doesn't confuse things more, I just need her to know that police here wear blue for crying out loud!_

"Okay, so if I get lost I find someone wearing blue with a hat like a pancake and give them the card?" _Oh to be three, I say flat and the first thing she thinks is pancakes!_

"Sounds good sweetheart, let's go!"

As it was she'd been paranoid, Maddy was an angel all afternoon and didn't need to find a policeman with a pancake hat, but Ellie made sure to point out every NYPD cop she saw so that Maddy knew what they looked like just in case! They went to Central Park and spent the afternoon throwing around a ball she'd bought from a small stall and chasing each other playing tag. By the time they jumped in the cab to head back to the hotel Ellie thought she just might have tired Maddy out enough that she'd behave when she got to meet her granddad.

They had dinner in the child friendly restaurant at the hotel and by the time Ellie had two seconds to look at her watch it was already 6.15. The butterflies returned with a vengeance but she squashed them to pay attention to Maddy's chatter about a dog they'd seen chasing it's own tail in the park.

_Almost time_ she thought with more than a tinge of trepidation._ Almost time for you to find out who you are my baby girl._


	11. Chapter 10

**AN: So today is officially a triple bill! **

**And I'm getting sick of saying this but once again the characters are taking their own sweet time getting to where I want them. This time it was Ellie kicking up a stink saying that she hadn't prepared Maddy well enough to meet Frank so eventually I gave up trying to direct it and I'm making it official:**

**I NO LONGER HAVE CONTROL OF WHEN THINGS HAPPEN IN THIS STORY, I KNOW WHAT I WANT TO HAPPEN BUT THE CHARACTERS ARE IN MUTINY! THEY ARE NOW RUNNING THE SHOW SO I HAVE NO IDEA OF WHAT"S COMING NEXT!**

**So whilst I can tell you that the family ****_will _****be finding out about Maddy (and I'd like to think within the next two chapters) I can give no guarantees!**

**Anyway, thanks again to everyone who reviewed and I'm going to stop blathering and hand over to the mutineers!**

_Previously on Bombshells:_

**_Almost time_**** she thought with more than a tinge of trepidation.****_ Almost time for you to find out who you are my baby girl._**

* * *

"Maddy sweetheart, I need you to listen to me for a sec okay?" The tiring three year old dutifully stopped gabbling and turned to look at her. "You remember the other day you asked me where your daddy was? And I said he died before you were born. Can you remember that?"

The little girl had picked up on her tone and looked appropriately serious. She thought very carefully and then nodded, "you said Daddy got hurt too badly when he was chasing a bad guy. Just like Jet, and he was in heaven with the other people who got hurt and couldn't be fixed."

Trying to explain what had happened to Joe to a three-almost-four year old had been difficult. No-one Maddy had been close to had died before so she'd been scrambling for an example. Eventually she'd remembered Jet, a police dog from the local K9 unit who'd been stabbed while tracking a running suspect. The association Maddy made must have been stronger than she realised; but then again it wasn't too much of a leap, both had been killed in the line of duty, or as Maddy understood it hurt too badly by the bad guys for the doctors to fix.

"That's right, well you see Daddy was a police officer like me, except your daddy worked for the New York police because he lived in New York. He was born here, just like you and I were born in London." She watched her baby girl try to process the new information.

"So Daddy was a policeman with a pancake hat?" _Well if that's the way it makes sense to her Joe I am not going to argue despite the fact I can imagine just what your face would have looked like if you heard your little girl calling NYPD cops 'police with pancake hats'!_

"Yeah, now your dad's name was Joe Reagan and…"

She was interrupted by an excited squeal, "my name's Jo Mummy. It's what Jonathan and Toby call me! Except when they say I'm acting like a girl, then they call me Josie."

Of course, how could she have forgotten the boys. Jonathon and Toby were the two sons of Ellie's old partner Margaret Donovan. Around the same age as Maddy, Maggie's two boys had become her little girl's best friends, so when they had announced that they wanted their own special name for her they had chosen her middle name. Josephine though was apparently too much of a mouthful and too girly for their tomboyish friend so she'd become their Jo. Maggie and her husband, Alex, had become the closest thing to family she and Maddy had, while Ellie and Maggie worked full time with the Met Alex worked from home and had become the default childcare solution for not only their kids but the children of several of the other working families from the station. Not that Alex minded one bit, the man had the patience of a saint, which Ellie had always found ironic given his chosen path as a vicar.

"Yes Mads, Josephine is the girls' version of Joseph, your dad's full name. Can you remember what Toby and Jonathon call Auntie Maggie's mum and dad?"

"Grandma and grandpa." The little girl was looking a little surprised at the sudden onslaught of information and Ellie was kicking herself for not thinking to do this earlier. Checking her watch she saw it was now 6.22. _Running out of time Copter move it along!_

"That's right. Now I know I don't have a mum or dad for you to have a grandma or grandpa, but your daddy's dad is still alive. He's your grandpa. And he's coming to see us this evening Mads, just about now." At that the energy which Ellie was almost certain had been lagging suddenly caught it's second wind, Maddy almost visibly perked up with excitement.

"I have a grandpa? He's coming here? Oooh Mummy I can show him my picture of us in the aeroplane! And I can tell him about the dog we saw in the park today, Mummy can we get a dog? I'd like a dog." And just like that her amazing little girl had accepted the fact she had a grandpa and gone off in a totally different direction, all in one breath!

"No Maddy, we can't get a dog, but maybe if you're good we can go see the police puppies when we get home. But Mads there's something else you need to know before we meet your grandpa." The energy level settled a little as her angel looked slightly disappointed that she couldn't have a dog but the promise of a trip to the puppies at the police kennels got rid of that. "Your dad didn't just have a daddy. He also had brothers and a sister. You have some uncles and an aunt who you can meet tomorrow if you like."

"Uncles and Aunties like Auntie Maggie and Uncle Alex?" The look of concentration on Maddy's face was almost identical to the one Ellie had caught on Joe's when he'd been concentrating on work, sometimes the similarities between the two of them would come out of nowhere and surprise her even now, and it always hit her like a fist in the face when it happened.

"Almost, except these ones are related to your dad because they have the same mum and dad. Maggie and Alex are your auntie and uncle because they are Mummy's best friends." _Please let that be enough, _she couldn't help thinking desperately, _I couldn't simplify surrogate family any more than that!_ After a brief second digesting the new information Maddy smiled and started shifting in her seat excitedly.

"So when do I get to meet my grandpa Mummy?" The anticipation on her face was enough to ease some of the butterflies in Ellie's stomach, she couldn't do anything else to prepare for this meeting. _In the lap of the gods as Dad used to say_ she thought with amusement as she began the familiar ritual of cleaning Maddy up as best she could with a wet wipe. Somehow the little tyke had managed to get bolognaise sauce up above her eyebrow.

Another quick glance at her wrist confirmed what she'd thought. 6.30. The numbers glowed merrily on the face of her watch. "Well actually, my well fed little monster, he should be getting here now. Let's go see if he's here yet." And with that her hand was grabbed in a surprising strong grip and she was being hauled towards the door separating the restaurant from the lobby.


	12. Chapter 11

**AN: Thanks to everyone who reviewed, as always they're bright spots in my day! **

**This chapter is dedicated to my most consistent reviewers so far: Caragh, BLBLF, geraldine123, and CBloom2. Lots of love and hugs to you guys xxx**

_Previously on Bombshells:_

**Another quick glance at her wrist confirmed what she'd thought. 6.30. The numbers glowed merrily on the face of her watch. "Well actually, my well fed little monster, he should be getting here now. Let's go see if he's here yet." And with that her hand was grabbed in a surprising strong grip and she was being hauled towards the door separating the restaurant from the lobby.**

* * *

As Frank climbed out of the SUV he looked up at the perfectly average apartment block in front of him. It could have been in any nice area of his city. A small sign outside advertised the child-friendly nature of the Oaks Apartments and the fact that there were vacancies, nothing to indicate that it was were his world was about to change. He squared his shoulders and pushed open the glass double doors to enter the lobby.

Inside the lobby could have been any mid range hotel lobby anywhere in the world. A tiled floor, off-white walls and a desk staffed by a single pleasant looking young woman. But just as Frank finished his initial glance around the area a door off to the left swung open and he could see Sgt Copter being dragged through the door by a very determined looking little child.

The sergeant was obviously pulling back on the child's hand. This had caused a redoubling of the effort the little girl was using, so when Frank saw her she had her head down pulling along her slower paced mother. As the door closed behind her he saw the small redhead look up from the focussed young child and when she saw him she stopped abruptly. The little girl realised her efforts had been halted and spun to look at her mother, "Mummy, we have to go meet my grandpa!" Frank's heart almost stopped at that. It had been a long time since Nikki had lost the purely innocent tone of voice that so many young girls seemed to possess, and to hear this little girl he'd yet to meet refer to him as grandpa without a second thought was something else.

"Mads, your grandpa's here." At that the young girl spun around again eagerly.

And Frank's heart well and truly skipped a beat.

This was real; he was looking at Joe's daughter. There could be no mistaking the determined set of the little girl's jaw, or the eager grin that was rapidly covering most of the lower half of her small face. Oh the mouth was far softer than his boy's had ever been, and the nose was entirely her mother's, but it was her eyes that captivated him the most. She had Mary's eyes, the deep clear blue which he'd fallen so deeply into and that she'd passed to their two youngest children. Now, apparently, Joe had passed them onto Frank's youngest grandchild.

_God in Heaven, but Joe she's beautiful. I hope you're watching over her my boy because she's going to be breaking hearts before any of us have time to blink! _

The little girl had seen him now and had turned back to her mother before pointing entirely unselfconsciously back at him. She was plainly asking whether she'd picked the right man. At her mother's small nod, he couldn't help but notice the slightly sad and wistful smile on her face, the little girl let go of her mother's hand and started towards him.

Frank couldn't stop himself sinking to one knee, trying to minimise the vast difference in their heights. The little girl bounded straight up to him without a shred of nervousness and then stopped. She cocked her head to one side and examined him closely. Looking straight into those eyes that were so like her father's, Frank felt another piece of his heart chip away and float down to rest with the little girl in front of him. Just as had happened when her father had opened his eyes and stared straight into Frank's when the nurse had handed him is second baby boy all those years ago. She was his granddaughter.

The little girl in front of him was obviously finished with her assessment of him as Frank heard one of the most beautiful things of his life, "hello grandpa, I'm Maddy." She put her hand out to him in a gesture that was so far at odds with her age and small stature that Frank couldn't help the small chuckle that escaped him. He reached out and very solemnly took her tiny hand in his much larger one.

"Hello Maddy." Frank could sense her mother walking up behind the little girl but he couldn't bring himself to look away from her. He was afraid that if he blinked he'd wake up and it would be 4am and this whole day would have been a dream. He could barely believe that the little miracle in front of him, with her mop of chestnut curls and those eyes, was real. Finally though, he tore his eyes away from Joe's daughter to look at the petite woman standing behind her. Even kneeling as he was she was barely taller than him and he could easily meet her slightly teary gaze.

"Sergeant Copter," he said, almost embarrassed by the choked tone to his voice.

"I think under the circumstances Commissioner you can call me Ellie," she smiled at him as she reached down to grasp her daughter's shoulders. "Maddy-monster, do you think your grandpa might like to come to the park with us for a little walk before we go to bed?"

"Oooh can you grandpa please? It's such a pretty park, there's huge trees and a playground with monkey bars, and swings, and a see-saw. Mummy, could grandpa push me on the swings? And maybe we'll see a dog like the one we saw this afternoon, Mummy are you sure we can't get a dog?" Frank couldn't believe the number of words she'd managed to fit into one breath. His granddaughter certainly seemed to be a little ball of energy; that must come from her mother. Joe had always been slightly shy, at least at first.

Looking at the little miracle still holding his hand in her far smaller one he couldn't resist, he knew deep down that despite only knowing her for two minutes she had him twisted just as firmly around her tiny little finger as her Aunt Erin and cousin Nikki.

"I think I just might be able to manage that. Lead the way then young lady." The grin on his granddaughter's face was enormous, and he felt another part of the hole Joe's death had left in his heart begin to scar over. _Joe, she's incredible. You did well for yourself my boy, and wherever you're watching from I'm sorry she never gets to meet her dad. We'll just have to do our best to introduce her to you. And Mary, my love, some divine inspiration as to how to break this to everyone else wouldn't go amiss!_

And just like that, Frank found himself being towed along by the little firecracker just as he'd witnessed her hauling her mother around not five minutes before.

**AN2: So FINALLY Frank gets to meet Maddy, I know it's brief but this felt like the right place to break this one up. Not quite sure what's coming next but I think we might be spending some time with them in the park before Frank gets back to the house to tell the family about his munition packed day! So until next time xx**


	13. Chapter 12

**AN:WOW BLOWN AWAY! OVER 50 REVIEWS! I LOVE YOU ALL SOOOO MUCH! Glad everyone seemed to like Frank meeting Mads so much. This one's a little briefer than normal but I'm gearing up for uni exams here so updates will probably be getting a bit shorter and slightly less frequent over the next few weeks, but never fear... normal service will resume ASAP!**

_Previously on Bombshells:_

_Joe, she's incredible. You did well for yourself my boy, and wherever you're watching from I'm sorry she never gets to meet her dad. We'll just have to do our best to introduce her to you. And Mary, my love, some divine inspiration as to how to break this to everyone else wouldn't go amiss!_

And just like that, Frank found himself being towed along by the little firecracker just as he'd witnessed her hauling her mother around not five minutes before.

* * *

Ellie stood still for a moment. She watched as the centre of her universe moved towards the door. It was almost comical and she couldn't help reaching for her phone to snatch a quick photo of the larger than life police commissioner being pulled along by his granddaughter.

But she also couldn't stop the small flash of jealousy in her heart. It may have been selfish but it practically hurt to be forced to share her little girl with someone else, and not for the first time that day Ellie was forced to consider just how different her life may have been if Joe hadn't been killed. _ Get a grip Copter, what did you expect? It's impossible to not fall in love with her! _

And there was no doubt that was what she had just witnessed, a man falling head over heels for the latest addition to his family. And there came the guilt and sadness; that moment should have happened with Frank Reagan holding a baby Maddy, with Joe and her looking on proudly. Not in a hotel lobby when Maddy was almost four. _You can't change it now Els, _the voice in her head was unmistakable, _now would you go and rescue Dad from the mile a minute mouth of the energiser bunny?_

Ellie smiled a little, and started to follow after her daughter and her passenger.

*_BB*BB*BB*BB*_

Settling back into the rear seat of the SUV Frank Reagan couldn't wipe the smile from his face. He'd just spent a very pleasant half an hour pushing his granddaughter on the swings, listening to her talk about her life back in London with total abandon. Her mother had been quiet for the most part but had sat on the swing next to her daughter smiling. She'd laughed when, after being asked for a story about Maddy's father, Frank had told them about Joe training the next door neighbour's dog to constantly try to steal Danny's schoolbag any time his brother walked past the fence.

He could feel eyes on him and looked up to see Baker regarding him from the rear view mirror. His questioning face was prompt enough for her and she launched into a detailed rundown of the alterations she'd managed to make to his schedule for the next week. Apart from three urgent meetings with his borough chiefs and an engagement at one of the mayor's galas where Frank was to give an address she'd managed to almost totally clear it, baring emergencies as per usual. Frank must have smiled wider at that because Baker couldn't contain her curiosity, "So how did everything go Frank?"

"She's amazing, Abigail, she talks at a hundred miles an hour and obviously loves her mom. She couldn't stop talking about how her mom rides a horse to catch bad guys – did you know the sergeant is in the mounted unit – and she asked about Joe, she wanted to know is her mom was telling the truth when she said she had her dad's eyes."

"Does she look like Joe then?" Abigail _did_ know that Ellie Copter had gotten a transfer into the mounted unit of the police a little over two years ago, she also knew about the commendation that she'd received following the Hackney riots in 2011 and the service animal advocacy work she did. But the PC didn't need to know just what she'd been up to during his visit with his granddaughter.

"She's definitely got his eyes, Mary's eyes. And his smile, and her hair's almost the same colour but it's curly. The rest of her though is quite like her mother; definitely the way she acts comes from her. Although Ellie said that was because she spends most of her time with a friend's two sons so she is a bit of a tomboy, they call her Jo, something about a special name and Josephine being a silly mouthful." That raised an eyebrow from the young woman in the front seat.

"So when are you seeing her again Frank?"

"Ellie said she'd bring her to the house at about 1100. Which means when I get back I have to find some way to explain this to everyone. You did manage to get hold of them all didn't you Baker?"

"Yes sir, they asked questions to start with but once it became clear I didn't know why you wanted to see them they said they'd contact you instead."

"Well I just ignored their texts, I don't know how I'm supposed to do this."

"You'll think of something before we get there sir. Although how it's going to go over I don't know." With that she seemed to think it was time to leave him to his thoughts as she began conversing with the sergeant sitting next to her who had just got off a phone call that as far as Frank could tell had been to Garrett.

_Just how to tell them? Short and to the point I think. And then deal with the explosions as they happen. How did Joe ever think this was going to end well? Joe didn't have to think how to tell everyone that he also had an almost four year old daughter that's why! Please God keep the shouting to a minimum, particularly from Danny and Erin otherwise they'll twist this until it's somehow the other's fault just like everything else._ Frank mentally shook himself and stared out of the window, trying to avoid thinking about the inevitable chaos that was about to erupt around the Reagan house.

By the time the car pulled up outside the house Frank was as intimidated by the thought of the carnage that was just waiting to happen in the house as he had been by Mary's father the first time they'd met. In other words, he was seriously considering having Baker drive around the block several more times just to buy some extra time!

_You know this isn't going to get any easier Frank, just hurry up and get it over with! _That had been Mary's advice on how to deal with her father that first night and the words floated through his mind soothing him slightly as he squared his shoulders and began the walk up to the house.


	14. Chapter 13

**AN: OK so I am stressed to the max with uni exam study atm so replying to reviews is on hold for a while. **

**This does not mean they are not still very much loved, kissed, adored, cuddled and taken out any time I need a pick me up (more and more often the closer I get to exams!) ! **

**So PLEASE KEEP THE REVIEWS COMING!**

**On another tack entirely, here comes the scene you've been waiting for for ages! Well the first half of it at least, the characters kind of mutinied after I wrote this much so the second half will hopefully be up in the next few days.**

_Previously on Bombshells:_

**By the time the car pulled up outside the house Frank was as intimidated by the thought of the carnage that was just waiting to happen in the house as he had been by Mary's father the first time they'd met. In other words, he was seriously considering having Baker drive around the block several more times just to buy some extra time!**

**_You know this isn't going to get any easier Frank, just hurry up and get it over with! _****That had been Mary's advice on how to deal with her father that first night and the words floated through his mind soothing him slightly as he squared his shoulders and began the walk up to the house.**

* * *

The clamour started the second Frank got through the front door. He could understand why, the family getting together outside of Sundays for anything except sports was historically never associated with anything good. Usually it was in a hospital but if it was at the house it meant there was a family crisis which needed to be dealt with immediately.

He stubbornly kept his mouth shut as he divested himself of his coat and made his way to the kitchen for a drink of water. _Not that I'd object to something stronger, _he thought dryly, _but that can wait for later, I think we'll all need something stronger then._

He silently walked into the dining room, feeling not unlike the pied piper with the family trailing after him like they were. Taking his seat at the head of the table, he watched as the family moved to their habitual seats all of them having realised he wasn't going to say anything until he was ready.

All of them except his father it seemed, "Francis just what is going on? Are you retiring?"

"What? Why would you think I'm retiring, Pop?" That was enough for the temporary familial vow of silence to break and the questions came from every side and all at once.

"Dad, what's going on?" Erin.

"Frank?" Linda.

"Grandpa is someone sick?" Nikki.

"Dad why are we here?" Jamie.

"Grandpa is someone hurt?" Jack.

"Aren't we having dinner?" Sean.

"Dad?" Danny.

"If you're not retiring what's going on?" Pop.

Frank simply sat in his seat, face unreadable as the family's questions washed over him. When they finally ran out of steam, the question as essentially the same. Just why had he called a family meeting that everyone was there to attend?

"I had a visitor today. Her name was Sergeant Elizabeth Copter. She's from the London Metropolitan Police." He looked around then to see if the name registered with any of the others, but their faces were just as confused as they had been before he spoke. _So you really didn't tell anyone Joe?_

"She came to see me because she met Joe when he was in London just before he died." The confusion and tension around the table eased a little.

"They were together whilst he was in London and he meant to introduce her to us - " The cacophony was immediate. The shock was practically visible as it ricocheted around the table as everyone grasped just what it was he'd said.

"Uncle Joe had a girlfriend?" Nikki couldn't quite keep the disbelief out of her voice, "why didn't he tell us?"

"Apparently they were embarrassed. They hadn't known each other very long but they were very involved."

"Hadn't known each other long! He was only in London a month, Joe never moved that fast with a girl, ever!" Danny's voice was raised and he looked outraged, Frank couldn't help thinking it was a little hypocritical of him. It had been barely two minutes after he first met Linda that Frank remembered him telling Joe he was in love! "How do we know she's for real? What does she want? It's been four years! Why didn't she come for the funeral if they were together!"

"Danny!" Even now years later sometimes he had to raise his voice to get his eldest to contain himself. "She had her reasons for not coming before. None of us knew about her and Joe. She felt she would just be intruding and causing new wounds. And she is telling the truth."

Erin looked sideways at him. She was wearing her trial mask, the blank face that she used when trying to minimise her shock when she was blindsided by the defence in a trial. "Joe was going to introduce her to us? How? Just have her show up on a Sunday?"

Frank couldn't contain a small smile at that, "that was exactly his plan. Apparently your brother wanted to cause something of a scene, he was quite looking forward to it from what Sgt Copter said." He looked around the table again, carefully gauging the reactions he could see.

Danny was still flushed with outrage, but Frank could see a disbelieving Linda gripping his hand tightly and that was enough for Danny to be keeping his temper somewhat in check.

The boys were looking slightly confused. Frank knew from Danny that Sean had admitted to barely remembering his uncle; a fact that saddened him but wasn't a total surprise, he had only been about three at the time. Jack was plainly trying to think just what the fuss was about.

His father was watching him carefully, but Frank could see the hurt simmering away underneath. Joe had always been close to his Grandpa, the more than willing victim of many a practical joke (the blue hair dye incident being one notable exception), and he knew it still hurt his father to think of everything Joe was missing.

Jamie just looked blank. That was a worry; hidden and well-controlled though it may be Frank knew his youngest had a temper that was just as volatile as his own. Once the shock wore off Jamie was going to be either the voice of reason or something was about to get broken, Frank prayed for the former.

Nikki was looking scandalised; her uncle Joe having a secret girlfriend was probably not something she had ever imagined in her wildest dreams.

She wasn't the only one in that position apparently as Frank turned to look lastly at his daughter. Her expression of shock was nowhere near as blank as her younger brother's and it would have been comical if the news wasn't quite so important. She looked totally discombobulated.

In fact, if Frank had had to pick one word to describe the atmosphere in the room at that precise moment it would have been that one. _One of Mary's favourite words,_ his helpful brain hauling that piece of trivia up from goodness knew where.

"How do you know she's telling the truth Dad?" Frank shouldn't have been surprised by that but he was. Even dazed by a curve ball his Manhattan ADA couldn't miss a beat. "You said you knew she was telling the truth. How? Did you talk to someone in London?"

"No I didn't speak to anyone in London. It was someone here in New York that I spent a good half an hour talking to this evening."

"Joe didn't tell us, but he told someone else?" Jamie at last. His tone though was still as blank as his face so Frank still had no idea what he was thinking.

"Not quite." He now appreciated why Ellie hadn't been able to find the right words to tell him earlier that day. Everything seemed to be too blunt. But lacking a sonogram to pass off didn't leave him with very many options.

"I spent the time talking to Joe's daughter."

For another very rare moment, the Reagan family dining room was dead silent.

Then all hell broke loose.


	15. Chapter 14

**AN: So I managed an update FINALLY! Exams will be finished by the 9th of November but I will hopefully get a chance to update again before then :S**

**As always thanks go to all my lovely reviewers, you are all very much hugged! I am averaging about 200 visitors a chapter (way more than i ever dreamed when I first posted this!) and as usual guys I'd love your thoughts, even if it's two words saying 'thumbs up' (or down if you're that way inclined!). **

**Particularly this chapter thoughts very much appreciated as there are parts where I'm kind of worried about my writing being clunky!**

_Previously on Bombshells:_

**He now appreciated why Ellie hadn't been able to find the right words to tell him earlier that day. Everything seemed to be too blunt. But lacking a sonogram to pass off didn't leave him with very many options.**

**"I spent the time talking to Joe's daughter."**

**For another very rare moment, the Reagan family dining room was dead silent.**

**Then all hell broke loose.**

* * *

The shouts were coming from every direction, the noises getting so garbled together that Frank could only pick up on a few words.

Joe. Daughter. Kid. No way. What the hell.

He simply sat still again letting the noise wash over him. Even the noisiest Sunday dinner arguments never produced noise levels this catastrophic. Once the initial outrage dimmed a little the noise levels came back to vaguely understandable, but just looking around the table made it clear that anger was still the ruling emotion. There was only one still suspiciously tranquil spot in the room.

"QUIET." It was rare for his father to truly raise his voice, so the sudden silence in the room was immediate. Frank looked down the length of the table, straight into the betrayal emanating from his father's eyes.

"You're sure Francis?" Henry's voice made it plain he couldn't believe it. Hiding a relationship was one thing, but to have a great-granddaughter that he knew nothing about was quite another.

"I'm sure Pop. She's almost four. Her name's Maddy." He was surprised to find that he still couldn't stop the reflexive smile. He'd thought it was just a hangover from his pleasant meeting when he was in the car; apparently any mention of the curly haired little girl was enough to bring it on.

"Why the hell has it taken four bloody years?" Danny was furious, one glance though and Frank knew he was an open book just as he'd always been. He was just as hurt as his grandfather. He and Joe had been close, even more so in the months leading up to Joe's death with his work in warrant squad causing a fair bit of overlap in their work. "How could he have not told us Dad?"

"He didn't know Danny. Sergeant Copter didn't know herself for almost two months after he died." He could see his words wouldn't soothe the hurt his eldest boy was feeling. Nothing would that night. Not until he got his family back under his own roof and the pillar of strength that was his astonishing wife let him collapse. Frank knew Danny blamed himself for his brother's death, just as much as he often caught himself doing in the early hours of the morning. Ever since Erin was born Danny had been overprotective of his siblings. Nothing had been more important to him than making absolutely certain no harm ever came to his family. Joe's death had broken something in Danny, something which Frank had watched helplessly eat his son alive for months. It had slowly started healing and he could only pray that this new hurt didn't tear open fresh scars.

His grandchildren were keeping very quiet. Nikki looked torn, she obviously wanted to hear about her new cousin and just how her uncle had managed to keep such a huge secret from a family as close as theirs; but her job in situations like this was to shield the boys from the potentially damaging words which could fly across the table when Reagan tempers were raised. She stared beseechingly at him and he gave her a small nod of encouragement.

"Come on boys, we can ask Grandpa about," she broke off abruptly looking once more at him, "Grandpa what's her name again?"

"Maddy."

"We can ask about Maddy later. You need lessons in being older cousins." _That girl is getting too old to babysit the boys. _Frank remembered just how much she had adored her Uncle Joe, second to her darling Uncle Jamie of course. S_he obviously has questions._

"Actually boys if you look on top of the TV cabinet there's a new video game," _so I'll need to buy Sean a new birthday present, _"your lessons in being older cousins are going to have to wait, I need Nikki to stay here." Nikki looked just as shocked as her cousins looked delighted at the prospect of a new game.

"Dad…"

"Erin she's sixteen. She's old enough to have questions and an opinion just as much as the rest of you." Erin still didn't look happy but the beaming smile on his granddaughter's face was enough to let him weather whatever Hurricane Erin was going to throw at him later.

"How could she not know though?" Jamie finally spoke. The words were still quiet but as he spoke Frank knew his earlier prayers had gone unanswered. His youngest was furious. "How could she not tell us?! We're his family, we should have … Joe should have…" Jamie shoved his chair back so fast it toppled over and he almost flew out of the room.

They all sat shocked, Jamie didn't lose his temper often.

A furious Jamie was no more spectacular than when any of them became spitting mad, but it was always shocking in its spontaneity. He would bottle everything up until he simply exploded. And woe betides anyone in his vicinity when it happened.

Frank recalled on more than one occasion coming home to find Danny with a black eye he was always reticent to admit being given by his little brother. It was always Danny. Jamie would never raise a hand to a girl so Erin had managed to escape with nothing more than a very definite piece of her brother's mind, and Joe had always been the only one able to head Jamie's temper off at the pass.

Where Danny and Erin would deliberately throw fuel on the fire Joe would simply say nothing. That would transfigure the explosions into rants. And Joe would still just say nothing until the rant ran out of steam, even if they had been in the midst of a blazing argument Joe would simply stop talking.

Frank had asked Joe about it once. Jamie would never let his temper truly loose at either Mary or him. There had been arguments a plenty, just as there had been with all the kids, but they were never the explosive rows that occurred between their children. Joe had shocked Frank with what he said, "Dad, Jamie feels awful when he loses it. He feels so guilty for not keeping a lid on himself. He can barely bring himself to _talk_ to Erin or Danny for _days_ after he blows up at them. I don't want him feeling guilty. So I stop and it lets him calm down. Honestly I think he scares himself sometimes."

They heard the back door slam loudly, and something smashed in the backyard. Erin half rose but Frank simply shook his head. "Don't. He'll come back in when he's good and ready. I think he has some choice words for Joe that none of us are meant to hear. I know it's a shock for all of us. But I have every intention of getting to know my granddaughter, so she and her mother are coming to spend the day here tomorrow."

Nikki was looking expectantly at a still slightly shocked Erin, "we will be here right Mom?" Then she looked quickly over at him, "that is if she wants to meet us? We can come and meet her right Grandpa?"

Frank couldn't stop himself smiling, of everyone around the table his granddaughter seemed to have been the fastest to process the bombshell he'd dropped. An only child himself he knew Nikki's eagerness came from a hope that another cousin would give her another quasi-sibling to love and dote on. And even better than the two Reagan cousins she already had, she was getting a girl cousin for the first time!

"Ellie was definite, she knows she's made a mistake not telling us about Maddy before now, but she wants Maddy to grow up knowing her family. The door is just as open to you all tomorrow as it is any other day."

Danny looked unsure but Frank could see Linda was nodding, there was no way Nikki was going to let this chance pass her by and Erin was looking more and more comfortable with the idea of a niece by the second. Jamie may currently be having a very frank conversation with his brother but with a father's experience and knowledge of his children Frank knew there was no way his youngest would let go of a part of his beloved brother. One last look down the table to his father confirmed his suspicion.

Tomorrow was going to be a busy day at the Reagan's.

Standing Frank moved to the liquor cabinet and drew out the ever present bottle of Irish whiskey with its half a dozen tumblers. Pouring a measure into each he handed them to the adults around the table even, with a questioning look at his daughter, tentatively offering a slightly smaller measure to his granddaughter.

"To Joe, to forgiveness, and to family."

"To family," they toasted before they were interrupted by a disgusted cough exploding from Nikki.

"How can you _stand _this stuff?"

**AN2: So there you have their reactions! I think there will be another chapter for this evening before we move onto Maddy meeting the family.**

**On a side note I hope you enjoyed the little levity at the end, I just felt like the chapter was getting a little too heavy! This was my exact reaction to my first drink of whisky at 16!**

**In the following years though I have become much more educated and now enjoy a good scotch just as much as my Dad!**


	16. Chapter 15

**AN: So I know it's been absolutely FOREVER! But exams are now officially OVER! And I am back with free time to write, so expect the updates to start coming once again. **

**Thanks for all your reviews both here on Bombshells and over on Fated Meetings, they've kept me going and have made me smile. Don't think the fact that exams are over gives you a free pass now though! As always:**

**PLEASE READ AND REVIEW! xx**

_Previously on Bombshells:_

**Pouring a measure into each he handed them to the adults around the table even, with a questioning look at his daughter, tentatively offering a slightly smaller measure to his granddaughter.**

**"To Joe, to forgiveness, and to family."**

**"To family," they toasted before they were interrupted by a disgusted cough exploding from Nikki.**

**"How can you ****_stand _****this stuff?"**

* * *

Nikki Reagan-Boyle was used to missing out on the adults family meetings in their family. She'd never had a problem that. She loved her cousins and knew that their family often had to discuss things the boys didn't need to know. But she couldn't lie, when her Grandpa sent the boys off without her she couldn't keep the grin on her face, someone in the family was finally treating her like an adult! Her mum and Uncle Danny couldn't seem to realise she was 16 and had her own opinions, she wasn't just a child. That didn't mean she had to like whiskey now though! That stuff was foul, nothing like she'd expected it to taste after seeing how happy the rest of the family was to drink it!

Thinking of things that weren't expected, she couldn't believe what Grandpa had said about Uncle Joe.

He'd had a girlfriend?! Her thoughts turned to her uncle for a minute; he'd always been smiling, she could clearly remember that, and he kept her mum smiling through the divorce. When Uncle Danny had found out about the divorce he went and tried, valiantly but not very successfully, to beat her dad up (not that they'd said that was what had happened but she wasn't an idiot - even at twelve). But Uncle Joe had come straight to the house and had spent three nights there, keeping her mum company and stopping her from becoming too depressed. He had stayed until her mum's sadness and hurt had changed to productive anger and she was somewhat back to her usual self after boxing up all her dad's things. She had loved Uncle Joe all the more for that, but no-one could replace her Uncle Jamie as her all time favourite person!

And that thought brought her around to the other shock of the night; she'd seen Uncle Jamie storm out of the dining room before, but that was usually after Uncle Danny had been needling him for ages, and he'd never been as hurt then as he'd been earlier. She didn't like the thought of Uncle Jamie hurt and alone, he still hadn't come back inside.

Uncle Danny and Aunt Linda had taken the boys home after agreeing to come back in the morning. Grandpa Henry had gone into the garage to look for something; as soon they'd left Mum had dragged Grandpa into the living room and Nikki could hear them arguing about something, if it wasn't about Uncle Joe then she was willing to bet that it was about her not being sent to babysit the boys. Or maybe the whiskey, but she hadn't even drunk that! And Uncle Jamie _still_ hadn't come inside! And she was bored, so she stopped faking concentrating on homework and crept to the back door.

She opened it cautiously and looked out into the gloom of the back yard. She couldn't see anyone out there but she slipped out anyway. Standing stock still just outside the house she listened. Nothing.

"Uncle Jamie?" Her voice was soft and almost timid. The reply came back just as soft, and scarily close to what Nikki could only describe as broken, "Out here Nik." She smiled, no one else called her that – just her Uncle Jamie. No one else could even get away with it!

She walked further out into the back yard and managed to spot an Uncle Jamie shaped shadow sitting on the ground below one of the trees right at the back of the yard. She sunk down beside him and leant her head on his shoulder. She felt rather than heard him sigh as he lifted his arm and she cuddled into his chest, just as she'd done when she was younger. They sat like that for so long she almost jumped when he spoke, "what do you think would have happened if it went the way he was planning? I think Dad would have had a heart attack!"

She smiled, he probably wasn't too far off the mark, although… "I think it's more like Uncle Danny would pass out in shock! And Mum would go off on him - they'd never even notice his girlfriend until they were yelled out!"

They both shook lightly with bittersweet laughter before lapsing into silence again. They'd never _had _to talk. When it was something important that he wanted to know he'd mention it in passing and then shut up, not like her Mum who wouldn't stop pestering her until Nikki lost it and said things she didn't mean just to get her Mum to give her some space!

Uncle Jamie was her favourite and everybody knew it!

So she didn't feel at all uncomfortable with what came out of her mouth next, "what do you think she's like?"

If she'd asked her mum she'd never have gotten a straight answer, Uncle Danny would have probably ignored it all together but Uncle Jamie just answered her.

"Joe obviously cared about her and he didn't have a type _exactly_ but I remember a few of his girlfriends. They were all smart, most of them were pretty loud, and almost all of them were brunettes. So I'd guess she'd quite like that, but none of them had kids so I don't really know any more than you Nik."

"Are you angry? I've never seen you get that mad before." She moved out from under his arm to turn slightly and face him. He looked a little uncomfortable at that, but still did his best to look her in the eye a little shamefaced.

"You shouldn't have seen that Nikki, and I'm sorry that you did. I shouldn't have lost my temper. I'm not angry at him now," his face twisted into a wry smile which made her almost certain that Grandpa had been right about Uncle Jamie having plenty to say to his brother.

"I guess I'm just hurt. He was my best friend, and to find out now that he was keeping something as big as a girl he was obviously in love with a secret just so he could cause a scene at Sunday dinner? That almost makes me angry but he just though he had all the time in the world." The next part was so quiet, she wasn't even sure if he had said it, she knew she wasn't the one he was talking to when he said it.

"He _should_ have had all the time in the world."

With that they lapsed back into silence until they heard the back door opening.

"NIKKI?"

"I'm out here Mom! I'll just be a second!"

As soon as he'd heard the door opening Uncle Jamie had begun pushing himself to his feet and now he reached down to pull her up. He yanked her to her feet so fast she almost lost her balance. She fell into him and didn't bother trying to correct it. She just wrapped her arms around him and squeezed lightly. It took no time at all for the answering hug to come.

They didn't need to say anything. They both knew almost nothing he did would ever make her scared of him. And she could never hate him.

He was her favourite.


End file.
